The needs of elderly individuals are not always the same. While others may require one of the forms of long-term care, others may only need to sign up for short-term stays.
Long-term care is something many of us are already familiar with.
It’s the kind of care that usually involves a caregiver staying at the home of an elderly individual or it may also take the form of the older person staying at a facility. Even if it’s the latter, caregivers will still be involved as they will be the ones monitoring the older people who reside at the facilities.
But what about short-term stays? How do they work and are they worth trying out if you have an elderly family member in need of some monitoring and care?
As you’ll soon see, not only are short-term stays worth considering, they may even be the ideal option for you and your older family member.
A short-term stay will involve your loved one temporarily moving. Instead of staying at home where they may have to be alone, your relative can spend time in a care facility and rely on the people there for assistance.
You can almost liken a short-term stay to a stay at a hotel. The biggest difference is that there are caregivers present who will help the guests get more comfortable.
They won’t be able to order room service or open the mini-fridge while they are staying at the care facility, but they can rest easy knowing that there are professional caregivers there who can assist them in all kinds of ways.
In essence, a short-term stay is the result of combining a hotel stay with taking up residence at a care facility.
Since short-term stays don’t cost as much as long-term stays at care facilities, many may think that some services are made unavailable to those who opt for the former. The good news is that elderly individuals who only opt for a short-term stay will not have to worry about missing out on anything.
They are still given access to the same wide array of services that are provided to those who are staying for longer periods of time.
Food will be provided to people who are staying short-term at a care facility. Meals are provided throughout the day and they can be tweaked in accordance to any health restrictions that a guest may have. Guests are also allowed to dine with the other people at the facility, thus giving them the opportunity to interact and make new friends.
If the opportunities to interact with other guests presented during mealtime are not enough, guests can also participate in other events happening later in the day. Operators of facilities often hold events and other activities designed to help energize and entertain the elderly people in their care.
Guests also don’t have to worry about daily chores such as laundry because the caregivers handle them too.
Some facilities want to ensure that their guests receive the exact type of care that they are looking for. In pursuit of that goal, they will offer individualized care plans.
Among the services included in these care plans are hygiene-focused services, travel arrangements, and even community pets. If you want to check your elderly relative into an establishment that offers individualized care, you should consider Bethany Homes.
Short-term stays may at first seem like a needless middle ground option between long-term care and simply staying at home.
After all, if your relative is well enough that all he/she needs is temporary care, then he/she can probably just stay home. On the other hand, if your relative’s condition has reached the point where constant supervision is required, it may be wiser to just go ahead with a long-term stay.
Not all cases require one of those two options however.
There are times when a short-term stay at a care facility really is all that your older relative will need.
If your relative is still well enough to take care of the daily chores at home, admitting him/her to a long-term care facility is excessive. However, if that same relative recently just underwent a surgical procedure or is still recovering from being confined, a short-term facility stay suddenly makes a lot of sense.
You may also want to look into signing your loved one up for a short-term stay if they have a caregiver who recently went on vacation or if you’re still in the process of hiring a new one. There are older people who simply do not want to stay at a care facility long-term and prefer having a caregiver at home. Short-term stays will help ensure that your relative is cared for as you go searching for a new caregiver.
Short-term stays are also useful because they help you gain insight into what a facility can offer. Even if you have heard good things about a specific facility, it would still be better if you could get a firsthand account of the kind of care they can provide from someone who directly experienced it.
At the moment, checking your relative into a long-term care facility may not be something you want to do, but if that becomes a necessity in the future, you will have more information to work with thanks to the short-term stay.
Regardless of the reason, you can partner up with Bethany Homes if you are interested in securing a short-term stay at a care facility for your loved one.
Short-term stays can serve as terrific solutions for families who are still deciding between what care to offer to their older relatives or to those who are still in the midst of recovery. Because of how flexible this option is, you can always change how you provide care to your relative if the need for that arises later on.
Talk to us at Bethany Homes now to learn more about the short-term stay options available and find the one that works best for your relative.
or Call us at: 925-443-6822