Home Care vs. Nursing Homes: Exploring the Disadvantages of Nursing Homes

If you are looking into professional senior care options for your parents, you may think that nursing homes are your only choice — the nursing home industry certainly likes to encourage that perception. The truth, however, is that you have a big decision to make between in-home senior and nursing home care.  While senior care facilities are often extremely convenient, the downsides to nursing homes can encourage people to explore other options.

Some of the downsides include:

• High instances of nursing home depression
• Inconvenience for families visiting their relative
• The rising cost of nursing facilities
• Nursing homes being understaffed — and possibly unsafe or negligent as a result
• Lack of personal relationship with organization and staff
• Poor quality of life / monotony

Luckily, if your parents live in Lancaster or York, PA, you have access to a wide variety of nursing home facilities and in-home senior care services. Whatever style of care you think is best—you’ll find it here. We’ve broken down the discussion into a point-by point comparison of the two services: senior care facilities and in-home care.

Nursing Home and Home Care Comparison

When comparing nursing homes to in-home care, there are many variables to explore. Your situation and your parents’ needs are different from everyone else. We can only show you the factors — you make the choice: home care vs. nursing homes.

Nursing Home Advantages

Nationwide there are more than 85,000 senior care facilities. After all, nursing homes do have their advantages — they couldn’t have made it as a $235 billion industry without a few upsides.

The primary benefit of nursing homes is the all-in-one convenience. As soon as your payment is deposited and your loved one moves in, the nursing home takes care of EVERYTHING. You can be involved as much or as little as you want.

The best facilities truly do offer set-it-and-forget-it convenience, so to speak. You just need to decide if that’s something you really want for your parents’ care.

Nursing Home Disadvantages

At By Your Side Home Care, we offer true in-home senior care. That means when you team with us, we match your loved one with a compassionate and experienced senior caregiver to provide in-home, one-on-one attention. The By Your Side caregiver stays for as long as your loved one needs, helping them with whatever they need — all in their own home. To ensure that we fully support our clients, By Your Side Home Care offers a variety of care options, including hourly care, 12-hour care, overnight care, live-in care, and 24-hour care.

We don’t directly compete with nursing facilities— we offer a very different alternative. Let’s take a look at the downsides of nursing home care and see how in-home care compares.

Nursing Homes Can Cause Depression

Tragically, depression is common in senior care facilities. In fact, studies show that approximately 30% of nursing home residents are diagnosed with either minor depression or chronic depression. Compared to a 7% rate of depression in the general population, that nursing home rate should alarm anyone looking at this care option.

Nursing Facilities Can be Difficult for Families to Visit

The average accommodations in a nursing home consist of what amounts to a one-bedroom apartment. While that space is typically enough for a single person or a couple, it doesn’t provide enough space for extended family to visit and stay overnight. This can prove to be real a letdown compared to your beloved family home, which often serves as a meeting place for big families to stay together during the holidays.

Depending on how close the family has stayed geographically, this may not be an issue. However, many people see this as just another reason for parents to keep their own home — rather than trading it in for room and board at a nursing facility.

Nursing Homes are Significantly More Expensive than In-home Care

Comparing the prices of nursing homes to home care is fairly simple.

With over 85,000 facilities nationwide, senior living facility prices will fluctuate, but the constant is that they are ALMOST ALWAYS more expensive than in-home care.

AARP estimates that the yearly price of an assisted living facility in Lancaster, PA is approximately $128,000.

If you’ve been doing your research, that figure doesn’t surprise you in the slightest.

By Your Side Home Care can guarantee you a better price. Compared to the average cost of a nursing home, you’ll pay between one-third and one-half of the nursing home sticker price when you opt for comprehensive home care.  The average cost for By Your Side Home Care is $48,000 per year.

Nursing Homes Offer Less Personal Care

Studies examining the elder care industry show that under-staffing at nursing facilities is a national issue. Some statistics highlight that approximately 90% of facilities operate understrength on a continual basis. In practice, that can look like a single staff member caring for dozens of residents.

But, what does this mean for your parents and you?

To residents in the home, it means less personal care, less attention, less time with staff members and having to wait longer to get their needs met.

For you, less personal care means that you’ll be less likely to be able to get good information on your parents’ health from professionals. In fact, talking to someone who actually knows your loved one can often be a challenge.

In-home caregivers are never understaffed. When you partner with By Your Side Home Care, your loved one enjoys one-on-one caretaker attention.

Nursing Facilities Can Be Neglectful and Less Safe

While chronic under-staffing primarily inconveniences residents, occasionally it can endanger them.

When nursing homes make the news, this is the most common reason why. Overwhelmed nursing home employees frequently neglect to provide residents medication, meals, and even assistance using the bathroom.

The risk of stories like this happening to your loved ones is a major reason people opt for in-home care. In contrast to nursing home horror stories, in-home care provides a one-on-one relationship between a caregiver and a client.

Start a Conversation about In-Home Senior Care Today

Nursing homes like to make you think that they’re the only game in town for professional senior care — that’s not true anymore. In-home care very well might be the solution you’ve been looking for.

If you’ve never considered in-home care before, a conversation is the first step you can take. Reach out and we’ll be happy to discuss your parents’ unique situation and your vision for the care they receive.

Get in touch – we’d love to hear from you!