A “hybrid” care plan for elderly

Families need to create a “hybrid” care plan for elderly so that the quality of care is not compromised while the costs are under control

We know paying for a home caregiver for 24 by 7 is not affordable to many of us. Hence, we at Universal Health Hub (UHH) suggest a 3 option approach to families looking for guidance on affordable yet personal caring for their elderly.

Option #1: If elderly in your family can’t be left alone; we suggest family members taking turns in the night hours from 8pm to 8am. No one else can care better than family. Only for remaining day hours, arrange home caregiver. This will also help family control their home care costs for the elderly. We recommend family to care in the night since most of the night hours is when the elderly is sleeping except a few trips to the washroom.

Option #2: If no one in the family is available to care for the elderly in the night at home and the elderly needs 24 by 7 care then we recommend that the family puts together a “hybrid” care plan where the elderly moves to a retirement facility but few hours in the daytime, there is a caregiver visiting elderly. This caregiver will ensure the elderly eats well, stays hygienic and that there is someone to get things done their way at their time. The remaining hours of the day and night, the caregiver in the retirement facility can always help as requested. The caregiver at retirement facility is swamped since they have to care for many other elderly in the same day/hour, hence we recommend families arrange a dedicated caregiver for few hours in the day. Such a care plan by family helps keep the costs under control and at the same time gives one-to-one personal care that elderly needs on top of the generic oversight they receive at retirement facility.

Option #3 The last option is when no one in the family is available to care for the elderly at home and family cannot afford to arrange few hours of caregiver visit arranged at the retirement facility in a one-to-one capacity. In this option, the total care of the elderly is owned by the retirement facility. Unfortunately, in this care plan, most of the times the caregivers at the retirement facility do not have enough time to dedicate just to one elderly since they have to care for several elderly in the same day/hour.