Your Local Senior Placement Service. Call today! 541-954-2602

A Home to Fit You Logo: graphic of human with home under there arm.

Call today! 541-954-2602

Your Personal Senior Living Advisor

Serving Eugene, Springfield and outlying areas

Senior Living: In-Home Care
Eugene - Springfield, Oregon

In-Home Health Care for Couples or Singles

Most seniors would like to live independently in their home and avoid moving into a senior care facility. There are many ways one can live independently at home and avoid or delay the need to move into a senior care facility. At A Home to Fit You, we use our knowledge and expertise to help seniors and their families stay at home as long as possible, by creating a care plan that targets the support services to meet their unique senior in-home care needs.

Seniors living independently at home with their spouse of many years, can bring much happiness and joy, but one must be realistic about the growing demands of the aging process. When a couple live at home, although there is another set of eyes around, it may be that one person becomes the main caregiver for the other. One of the greatest concerns is that the spouse that is the caregiver, who may also be frail or in declining health, can exhaust him or herself by taking on responsibilities that are beyond his or her physical and/or emotional capability.

In-Home Health Care:  In-Home Support

When living independently at home, as a single or a couple, there are many things to be taken into consideration which we address in our senior health care assessment:

Home Modifications

We do a thorough home assessment and, if necessary, we will bring in professionals to modify the home for the care needs of the senior:

Determine accessibility needs for a walker or a wheelchair, clean clutter area, install ramp over entrance stairs, install a lift on the staircase to the second floor, install grab bars in the bathroom, raised toilet seat,  and a shower chair, remove throw rugs, install additional light fixtures, and rearrange the kitchen. These are just the few things that can be done to make the home safe for the senior to continue to live independently.

In-Home Caregiver

A hired caregiver can provide scheduled help with cleaning, laundry, meal preparation, shopping, companion, showers, dressing etc.

Family Members

Family can provide help such as transportation to medical appointments, grocery shopping, household chores, socialization.

In-Home Health Care Services

There are many in-home health services that are covered by medical health insurance. They would provide, for a short time and per the care needs, monitoring of medical care needs by a nurse and therapy for strengthening, mobility, Acitivities of Daily Living (ADL), speech and cognition needs by a Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and/or Speech Therapist.

Lifeline

The greatest concern for a senior who lives at home independently is falling. If there is no one around to call for help, critical hours can pass before help is provided. A lifeline (a call button that activates a call for help) is one of the best solutions for this problem.

Staying Connected Through Community Activity

Social isolation is another major concern when a senior lives by themselves. It is important to identify social interactions and activities that would allow the senior to stay connected and involved socially with his or her social network or with social activities in the community.

In-Home Health Care: Living With Family

In the old days, extended families lived together; grandparents, adult children and grandchildren shared the same house and helped one another. It is less common today to see three generations in one household, but not unheard of. When one parent dies leaving the other parent home alone, he or she may move into their adult son's or daughter’s home. If the senior is in good health and is able to help around the home by folding laundry, watching grandkids or cooking a meal, living with the family can be a good option to help seniors maintain some of their independence.

In-Home Health Care: When Living At Home Is No Longer Possible

It is important to keep in mind that caring for a parent can create a lot of stress and tension. As a senior's healthcare needs place more demands on their relationships, staying at home with family may no longer be a reasonable option. Take the time to honestly assess the home health care needs of the parent, and whether the family has the ability and availability to provide the necessary home health care. Senior health care needs requiring 24-hour care, such as memory loss that requires supervision at all times, or the need for heavy lifting, are just a few of the reasons why living with the family may not be a good solution.