Home Carers Or Moving Into A Care Home: What’s The Right Choice For You?

If you or a loved one are aware you need a little extra help in your day-to-day life with everyday tasks, it can be difficult to decide whether employing home carers or moving into a care home is the right choice for you. 

There’s lots to consider when making your decision, from how much each option costs to different practicalities, which is why we’ve put together this guide to everything you need to consider before you decide on your next chapter. Read on to learn more about the benefits of home carers, as well as what it’s like to move into a care home.

What Is Home Care?

Home carers are sometimes also referred to as home help or domiciliary care. Home care involves carers – usually from an agency – coming into your home to help with tasks such as getting out of bed, getting washed and dressed, or putting you to bed at night. Home carers may also help you with tasks like preparing food or making sure you have access to drinks throughout the day.

There’s also the option of employing live-in carers at home, but this is more expensive and may come via a private company. The cost associated with 24/7 carers will be prohibitive to some, and it may make more sense to move into a residential care home as a result.

What Are The Benefits Of Having Carers At Home?

Employing home carers or using a home help agency can allow you to stay in familiar surroundings for longer, in the home you’ve lived in for years. 

Home carers will provide you with a little bit of company from friendly faces a couple of times a day, giving you new people to talk to if you spend a lot of time alone.

Using carers at home doesn’t have to be a permanent solution – you may only need home help temporarily, for example if you need some extra support while you’re recovering from an operation, or while the loved ones who usually care for you are away. 

There can be lots of benefits to using home carers, but it’s not always the right choice for everyone – every person’s needs are different, and residential care will be the better choice for some. 

What’s Moving Into A Care Home Like?

When you move into a care home, you’ll have constant company from both care home staff and other residents, which may help to combat feelings of loneliness. 

Data from Age UK shows that some 1.4 million over-50s in the UK often feel lonely, which can have a huge impact on individuals’ mental health and confidence, in many cases leading to social isolation. However, moving into a care home will provide you with plenty of opportunities for conversation and stimulation, helping with feelings of isolation while giving your loved ones peace of mind that you have company and you’re not alone. 

The other benefits of moving into a care home include:

• Care home staff are on hand 24 hours a day to attend to your needs
• You’ll get your own room that you can personalise with your own familiar belongings from home, where you’ll be able to welcome visiting friends and family. At New Care homes, our ground floor bedrooms look out onto well-maintained gardens, so you’ll have beautiful views from your room
• There’ll be plenty of social activities, including with local community groups
• Staff at New Care homes are trained as part of the Oomph! wellbeing programme to enable them to deliver activities to support residents’ physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing, so there’ll be plenty of opportunities for fun and stimulation
• Meals will be provided for you, with New Care homes employing trained chefs who prepare a variety of nutritious options to suit different dietary needs every day
• Specialist care, such as dementia care, will be available as you get older and your needs change 

Remember, you can always come in and experience a care home for yourself before moving in, either with a visit, where you’ll be able to ask any questions you need to, or even with a short respite care stay. 

Home Carers vs Care Home: What’s The Right Choice?

Everyone’s needs are of course different, but there are some important points to consider. For example, home help carers often have lots of people to visit in one shift, so they may not be able to spend extra time with you before they need to leave. 

Home carers may also only be able to get you up and dressed, and won’t necessarily be employed to cook for you, so you may find yourself needing to pay for extra services such as meals on wheels too. However, if you move into a care home, your meals will be included in the fees you’re paying to live there.

If you need significant adaptations to your home following a diagnosis or operation, these can come with a high cost and turn your home into a place you no longer recognise, so it may make more sense to move into a care home as a long-term solution.

What’s more, if you require specialist care as you get older, such as dementia care, our care home staff have undergone dementia training, so you can be sure that you or your loved ones are in safe hands and a comfortable, familiar environment as the illness progresses.

Ultimately, knowing that you or a loved one are living in a safe, comfortable environment with staff on hand 24/7 can be priceless.

Home Carers vs Care Home: Cost Considerations

Of course, the cost of paying for either home carers or for moving into a care home will factor into your decision on what’s the best choice for you. 

Depending on your assets and circumstances, some financial assistance may be available to you to use towards care home costs, which you can read more about in our guide to care home costs. 

How Much Does In-Home Care Cost?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to ‘how much does in-home care cost?’, as it depends on what exactly you’re paying for. For example, the NHS says that the cost of an agency carer will typically come in at around £20 an hour, but the cost of a live-in carer will naturally be significantly higher. 

However, according to figures from carehome.co.uk, the cost of having live-in carers at home can range anywhere from £900 to £2,000 a week.

How Much Is A Care Home Likely To Cost?

There’s no standard answer to how much moving into a care home will cost you each week or each month, as it depends on multiple factors, such as:

• The specific care home
• The type and level of care required
• The size of your room
• The level of care home funding you’re eligible for

If you’d like more information on the cost of becoming a resident at a New Care home, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

New Care Homes: Stylish, Modern Residential Care

New Care Homes offer residential, nursing, respite, and dementia care in stylish, modern settings at locations across Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Leeds, Merseyside, and Nottingham. 

Our care home residents have access to premium facilities, including hair salons, nail bars, and restaurants offering fine dining, so you can live your later life in luxurious surroundings. 

If you’d like to arrange a visit to one of our care homes or if you have any questions about what it’s like moving into a care home, please contact us here.