Senior care services have become more personalized and specific now than ever before. Seniors and their family members can now opt for services as per their individual needs and preferences. There are dedicated service providers for everything, including home care, companion care, travel assistance, shopping assistance, and many more. In order to choose the right service for yourself or your loved seniors, you should first understand the difference between these senior care services.
In this blog, we are going to understand difference between the two most widely used senior care services, including companion care and home care:
What is Companion Care?
Companion care is about providing social, mental, and emotional support to seniors based on their needs and preferences. Companion caregivers can also help the elderly with basic household tasks; however, they mostly focus on the social and mental well-being of seniors. Companion care includes driving assistance, doing errands, shopping assistance, travel assistance, light housekeeping, gardening assistance, etc.
In simple words, companion care is about providing seniors with companions who are there to support the seniors with anything and everything they need. It’s not just about assistant with everyday tasks, but companion caregivers also ensure that the seniors experience a friendly presence.
They indulge in deep conversations with the elderly, ensuring that they do not feel isolated. Companions also help seniors explore new hobbies and follow their interests, which further improves their well-being.
Benefits of Companion Care
Companionship can be advantageous for the elderly in several ways as follows:
- Emotional Support: Companion caregivers provide seniors with the emotional and mental support they might be lacking in old age. Seniors can communicate with their companions, share their feelings, and engage in social activities like going on a walk. All of this leads to better mental and emotional health for the elderly.
- Reduced Feeling of Isolation: Seniors often feel isolated and depressed, especially when they are living along away from their families and loved ones. This feeling of isolation can be eliminated by companion caregivers, who are there to support the elderly whenever they need it, just like their family members. This reduces the risk of depression in the elderly.
- Increased Independence: Companion care enables seniors to continue following their hobbies, interests, etc., with the assistance of their companions. This leads to a healthy lifestyle, giving them a sense of independence and autonomy.
- Satisfaction for Family Members: Even the family members are always worried when they have seniors living alone at home. There can be instances when you have to leave your parents or grandparents alone if you are doing a job in another city or anything like that. However, good quality companion care services, such as Tuktu’s companionship services, give you peace of mind as there is someone to take care of your seniors and support them the way you do.
What is Home Care?
Home care is another category of senior care that involves personal services like housekeeping, non-medical physical assistance, assistance with dressing, assistance with bathing, meal preparation, assistance with feeding, doing dishes, and more. Unlike companion care, these services are more restricted to physical assistance rather than providing emotional or mental support to the seniors.
Benefits of Home Care
Home care also has several significant benefits for seniors, some of which are listed below:
- Comfort and Convenience: Home care provides seniors the assistance with everyday basic activities and intimate tasks, such as showering, dressing up, etc, in the most comfortable and convenient way possible. This allows the elderly to lead a healthy lifestyle while also maintaining their dignity.
- Safety: Home caregivers assist seniors with every task, including bathing, transferring from one room to another, and more, to reduce the risk of slipping accidents. This is how home care contributes to the safety of the elderly.
- Hygiene: Another aspect where senior home care plays a major role is maintaining hygiene. Seniors lose their cognitive abilities in old age and might not be able to maintain personal hygiene in a proper way. Personal home caregivers ensure that they live in a clean and hygienic environment.
- Health and Medical Assistance: Personal home caregivers also take care of the physical health of the seniors. They ensure that the senior ones take their medicines on time, eat a healthy diet, and lead a healthy lifestyle.
Difference Between Companion Care & Home Care
Companion care and home care might sound similar, but there are considerable differences between the two. While home care is more about providing physical assistance to the seniors with everyday personal activities, companion care is about accompanying them in engaging activities that the seniors like.
Home care is more suitable for seniors with physical disabilities or specific medical conditions, who cannot perform daily tasks on their own. On the other hand, companion care is suitable for seniors who can perform basic tasks on their own but require some social and emotional support.
Wrapping Up
If you are living away from your seniors, the best way to have some peace of mind is to ensure that your loved ones are safe and living a quality life. This is what companion care is all about. If you want your elderly to feel supported, listened to, and valued, opting for companionship services would be a good decision. However, if you are looking for physical assistance with everyday tasks, home care services would be a better choice.
For every need, there is a suitable option available online or offline. You can look for trusted senior care companies like Tuktu and opt for their companionship or home care services to ensure that your senior ones are properly taken care of during this golden period of their lives.
