Senior companion care is a form of In-Home care that offers non-medical services to seniors, and primarily focuses on emotional support and companionship for seniors who can remain at home but need assistance with day-to-day tasks.
While companion care and home health aides sometimes offer similar services, home health aids offer tasks including medication management, bathing and dressing, whereas companion care does not.
Services Included
Services for Senior Companion care generally include the following:
- Assisting individuals with running errands or shopping
- Light and general housekeeping
- Helping with or taking care of meal preparation
- Planning social activities
- Scheduling appointments
- Providing transportation to appointments
- Communicating with family members
Companions’ services provide routine visits to the care recipient’s home and range from daily or a few times each week. This is decided during the creation of the personalized care plan. This schedule will also vary depending on appointments or activities needed.
Associated Benefits
There are many benefits associated with companion care; all of which make life more manageable for both the senior and family members responsible for the care of their loved ones. Older people living alone, who are not able to get out of the house independently any longer, frequently begin suffering from loneliness, isolation or depression. With a companion, there are opportunities to engage in conversation, take walks, do simple things like play cards or put together a puzzle and have someone to hang out with.
Additionally, since companion services offer opportunities for the elderly to get out of the house, they are more apt to participate in social activities with other individuals the same age.
Growing old oftentimes comes with physical struggles. This can be very frustrating for seniors; having the extra assistance available helps to maintain the individual’s self esteem and independence. The impact of these physical struggles is directly associated with the senior’s personality. Some people naturally enjoy others helping them while others want to be able to do everything on their own.
Along with experiencing mobility challenges, cognitive abilities may be impacted. The cognitive decline, whether associated with age or diseases such as dementia or Alzheimer’s, companion care is a good alternative towards ways to help aging loved ones still live at home.
When family members find themselves responsible for caring for their aging loved ones, it can become stressful. With most adults working full-time outside of the home or moving away from family, it’s not always an option of being available to help these individuals to the necessary degree to maintain well-being.
Situations like this result in family members trying so hard to take care of aging parents or loved ones themselves while juggling everything else, they can sometimes do the bare minimum of care. Perhaps the quick errands or doctor’s appointments take place but finding time to take care of grocery shopping can prove difficult; and in these instances, social activities are quite likely null and void. Companion care not only offers important services and social outlets to seniors, but also helps relieve family members from the stress of trying to work on these tasks and the guilt of not being available to do so.
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