Top 3 Senior Care Services Families Confuse Most

The senior care industry is confusing. There’s a lot of jargon and industry lingo that doesn’t help. That’s why we wanted to dive into some of these topics to help clear the air for anyone trying to figure it all out.

Here are three of the most common confusions we come across.

From Emergency Care to Ongoing Support

The healthcare world can move like a raging Columbia River in early spring. And when you’re trying to schedule an important appointment, it can also feel as still as Clear Lake in late July. When it comes to care settings, there’s some nuance.

In times of emergency, 9-1-1 and the ER should be the first thought. These are our Emergency services. Other settings should not be confused with this.

The hospital, though, isn’t a very long-term solution. Their goal is to stabilize a patient and get them home or into another care setting. If some therapies are in order, this is where a transition to a post-acute facility usually occurs before transitioning home.

When adding caregivers to the mix, or moving into an Assisted Living or Memory Care facility, there is usually a required intake process to build what’s called a “care plan”. This can vary quite a bit depending upon State Regulations, but it’s a necessary step.

What’s the Difference Between Home Health and Home Care?

These are two terms that get used interchangeably, but are actually two very different services.

Home Health comes in with specific goals, one of which will be graduating from services. Temporary needs like Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapies. They could also be Skilled Nursing home visits for tasks like catheter management or caring for bed sores and pressure wounds. Many of these services are covered by Medicare and private insurance.

With Home Care, goals are more fluid. They aren’t based on a clinical checklist and don’t require a physician's order. These are trained caregivers, providing support for someone in need, in the privacy of their own home, wherever they call home. That could be a house on 10 acres or a Senior Living Community in the middle of town.

There can be some Skilled Nursing crossover in Home Care when nurses are on staff and involved in care, and Home Health agencies utilize Home Care caregivers for support with tasks such as bathing and dressing.

All Caregivers Do The Same Thing

Caregivers come in many different boxes. Two of the biggest differences come in care settings—facility vs in-home care.

Private caregivers work 1on1.

They’re there for one client, and their tasks are built around that individual. They might care for 3 or 4 different people in a day, but their focus is narrowed and coordinated for the needs of each individual.

A caregiver might spend 4 hours in the morning with Susan, getting her out of bed and ready for the day, making sure she has breakfast and something for lunch. Jumping across town, Rebecca needs someone to take her to her vision appointment and pick up the groceries. Charlie lives at the same Independent Living community as Susan, so on her way back over in the evening, the caregiver stops in to get Charlie's laundry taken care of and spend some time chatting with him over a game of checkers. She then heads back over to Susan’s apartment and gets her ready for bed.

With facility caregivers, they still have shift goals, but they're more task-driven, and much of their day is reactive to the call system in place.

Kathy needs help getting out of bed and dressed at 9:30. Betty has a headache and calls for some Acetaminophen around 10. Tom is in the shower at 10:15; Sam calls to go to the bathroom. Shirly has a shower scheduled for 10:30 and needs to be ready to leave for an appointment at 11:15. David needs assistance getting down to lunch at 11:30. 11:35, Sam had a lot of coffee this morning, and he has to go again.

Shifts are a bit more reactive with a group effort for support.

It’s understandable to feel overwhelmed when different services sound similar but function very differently. Knowing how these settings and roles differ makes it easier to ask the right questions and avoid unnecessary frustration. Clarity doesn’t solve everything, but it makes the next step that much easier.