Home Care or Home Health Care – What’s the Difference?

When your parents have decided to age at home with some assistance, home care and home health care are generally the two options. The one they choose depends on what their needs are. Basically, they are both care in the home for your senior loved one but one has a medical component and the other one doesn’t.
Home care is also known as senior care, elder care and a few other similar names. This involves help with everyday tasks of living. This could include home care and personal care. It might also include transportation and travel companionship.
Elderly health care might also be called home health care services or senior health care services or a similar name. As long as it has the word “health” in the description, it generally signifies that the person supplying the care is a licensed professional in health care, whether a therapist or registered nurse.
Prices for health care are higher than those for home care, so make sure you choose the one your elderly senior really needs. The health care may be a temporary issue. For example, your senior loved one has just returned from the hospital and needs to recover at home. You may want to consider some health care for a while. After that, you could switch over to home care.
Medicare doesn’t cover all forms of home health care, so you will want to check and see if your specific situation has any coverage. Home health care may require a doctor’s prescription.
If you are considering any type of home care, you can check with your home care agency and see if you can get an assessment done to determine your elderly loved one’s exact needs. If the senior in question is a wartime veteran or widow of a wartime veteran, the cost of some or all of the home care may be covered through the VA’s Aid and Attendance benefit. Determination of eligibility for this program requires a physician’s diagnosis and financial means test.
Home care is very helpful for seniors when it comes to having the assistance they need with tasks such as bathing, dressing and fixing meals. It also goes much farther than that. It provides your senior loved one with a companion – someone to talk to, to go to their physician appointments with them, and to help them remember to take their medications. If your senior family member has some specific needs, check with the agency to see how those needs can be met.
Caregivers often become the senior’s loved and trusted friend. It’s vitally important to have human contact on a regular basis. Loneliness and isolation lead to depression, which is something many seniors face, unfortunately. Having a companion on a daily basis really lights up the senior’s day and gives them something to look forward to. Social interaction for the elderly loved one is just as important for good mental and physical health as eating a balanced diet is. For more information about the Aid and Attendance benefit and determining eligibility, contact Veteran’s Home Care at (888) 314-6075 or go to www.veteranshomecare.com/our-unique-services/.