Assisted Living Vs. Home Health Care: A Battle Of Heart And Mind

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As the nation’s baby boomers steadily continue to join the ranks of our octogenarians, a new trend is rising: a combination of assisted living and home health care. At one time, mere decade ago, the phrases “assisted living,” and “home health care” were mutually exclusive. The first, assisted living,meant uprooting your loved one from their home, and moving them in to an external care facility where they would be one of dozens of seniors tossed asunder by their family members. At these facilities, they receive round the clock care administered by an untold number of medical personnel, and their day to day schedule is altered to meet with the needs of the staff and the facility. In many cases, the justification for this is that the facility, or its medical personnel, are of the opinion that the care recipient “doesn’t know,” or “won’t remember” anyway. This is a disheartening misconception. If the care recipient is so far gone that they wouldn’t know or remember a drastic change in a routine to which they’ve held for a lifetime, then what they need is a fully equipped nursing home, not an assisted ...
... living facility.


Home health care also used to involve an army of personnel. It was once typical for registered nurses and other healthcare professionals to essentially see the care recipient’s home as having a revolving door. Registered nurses and certified nurse’s aides would arrive, deliver rudimentary medical care, and move on to the next patient (again, on a schedule that was best suited for the staff and not the care recipient). Home health care used to be an alternative where the medical staff from a given facility would essentially bring nursing home to the patient’s house. The goal was to provide all of the necessary care one would receive at a nursing home, but with the benefit of not having to leave the home they had worked so hard all their life to keep. Until recently, they still hadn’t quite gotten it right.


Thankfully, there is now a very good middle ground. Some companies have managed expertly blend the benefits of an assisted living facility with home health care. As a result, they have become, in some cases, nearly indistinguishable. Assisted living has come to denote something much closer to its original intent, and needs not necessarily take place in a facility. The former is also true of home health care. Our addled seniors are no longer subject to have their condition worsened by having either their lives uprooted, or having armies of strangers invade them. It is now far more typical for care recipients to have a core group of two or three caregivers integrate into their routine, and help them continue leading the life to which they are accustomed.

Kris Leeds is a freelance writer for Visiting Angels, a leading home health care and elder care specialist. For more information about an assisted living services, please visit at Visiting Angels online.