Nursing Home vs. Old Age Home – Finding The Difference
Senior living arrangements come in different forms, and there is no single solution for every elderly person. People often confuse old age homes with nursing homes due to their characteristic similarities. However, there are stark differences through which you can tell them apart. This article will walk you through that so you can figure out which of the two is best suited for your loved one.
What Makes The Difference?
Old age homes aim to provide elderly people freedom, leisure activities, socialization opportunities, and adequate healthcare facilities within their premises. Nursing homes, on the contrary, are for senior citizens suffering from illness or the elderly who need constant care.
It is difficult to compare old age homes and nursing homes, as each of them has its own features and benefits that can overlap due to their similarities. You can understand the differences much better if you evaluate how they function separately.
Old Age Home
Photographer: Vlad Sargu | Source: Unsplash
Old age homes, also known as assisted living or retirement homes, are independent facilities specifically designed for the elderly. These homes aim to allow retirees to lead peaceful lives without putting their health at risk by providing care and rehabilitation services on demand.
Senior citizens who live in old folks’ homes live independently while undergoing medication, counseling, or recovery. At Noble Care, we also have retirement resorts where the retirees can feel at home.
When to pick an old age home
An old age home can be a good choice for a senior citizen who:
- Needs minor nursing support or medication but doesn’t need full-time medical treatment
- Needs assistance with everyday tasks such as dressing and bathing
- Is looking for a decent lifestyle without lawn care or home repairs
- Wants to live an active life but lacks transportation facilities
- Is interested in social activities or looking for new friends
- Wants to engage in fun activities that cater to their interests, such as golf, painting, or religious studies, in a homely environment.
Photographer: Georg Arthur Pflueger | Source: Unsplash
Elderly people with severe health issues, be it physical or mental, are generally admitted to nursing homes. Some suffer from dementia, a mental illness that affects intelligence, character, and memory. At nursing homes, highly trained nurses assist residents with bathing, dressing, walking, and other daily activities.
Despite the fact that nursing homes welcome end-of-life treatment, they aim to keep the patients entertained. Nursing homes provide leisure opportunities for their patients keeping in mind their health concerns.
When to pick a nursing home
A nursing home may be appropriate for elderly loved ones who:
- Need round-the-clock care due to chronic illness or deteriorating health
- Aren’t able to feed themselves on their own
- Have been injured and require extensive rehabilitation
- Require services such as healthy meals and on-site facilities such as salons, religious services, and medical appointments, which are not available in a home-care environment.
- Desire more daily engagement and contact than in-home nursing would provide
- Suffer from progressive disorders, including but not limited to Parkinson’s disease, Dementia, and Multiple Sclerosis.
Explaining The Difference Between Old Age Homes and Nursing Homes
There are some fundamental differences between old age homes and nursing homes, such as:
- Old age homes are staffed 24 hours a day, and a part of the staff consists of qualified nurses taking care of the elderly, if and when needed.
On the flip side, nursing homes would provide the same kind of assistance with an additional benefit. They have registered nurses on standby round the clock. Residents living in nursing homes often need constant care from doctors and nurses.
- Staff members at an old age home assist people with personal care needs such as washing, dressing, going to the bathroom, and engaging in social or physical activities.
Nurses at nursing homes take constant care of the elderly. So, they provide personal care support as well. But as the residents here generally suffer from sickness, they often stay in bed all the time.
- When required, old age homes call in the local nurses to prescribe medications and treat any complicated wounds.
At nursing homes, you’ll always find qualified nurses who can recognize any change in a person’s health and provide medical services accordingly. As such, a nursing home is often the best place for someone with a complicated medical condition.
- As many retirees often choose old age homes, they make conventional beds and sleeping arrangements. Most old age homes struggle with residents with mobility issues.
Unlike old age homes, a nursing home has special beds and a range of arrangements for anyone with a mobility issue. At many nursing homes, patients can visit specialized doctors.
Which One To Choose?
Both old folks’ homes and nursing homes offer special care in their own ways. Unless a person has specific medical conditions that necessitate the presence of a licensed nurse around the clock, there is no direct line between the two.
Other services such as Respite Cares offer temporary services varying from days to weeks and even months. Another type of service is Home Nursing, where they provide in-home services via professional nurses. Home nursing offers a variety of assistance to the elderly at home to help them live a healthy life.
When researching care choices, it is important to understand what the individual’s future needs might be. If you’re uncertain, speak to your doctor or assisted living specialists regarding your beloved one’s needs, and they will help you make the best decision.
Final Words
Senior living options have grown over the last few decades as the needs and desires of older adults have shifted. Finding the best choice for your loved one’s preferences is critical to keep them healthy and safe.
As Asia’s No.1 Elderly Care services, Noble Care can help you navigate the various senior living choices and find the right choice for your loved one. If you have any queries, feel free to reach out to us, and we will guide you to the best of our abilities.
- Published in Elderly Care, General
4 Steps for Caring for a senior with Dementia
Caring for a patient with dementia is as demanding as anyone would expect. It’s estimated that at one point in their lives, 33.33% of seniors from American countries are identified with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia-related problems.
This means that many Americans are living with dementia that makes millions of people become caregivers to provide additional support and care to the patients.
When a relative or family member is diagnosed with this condition, it can be very traumatizing for them and very challenging for you as you find the best possible way to help such a dear person get along with life.
What should you do to ensure that the person gets enough support and care?
This article gives four-steps that can help caregivers and family members provide the necessary support and care to persons diagnosed with dementia-related conditions.
1. Understand the Type of Dementia
The fact that one has dementia doesn’t mean that he/she has Alzheimer’s disease, although it’s known that about 65% to 85% of patients with dementia are also identified with Alzheimer’s.
Dementia is caused by many other problems such as the nervous system infection (Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Disease, HIV, and Meningitis), traumatic brain-injuries (brought about by concussions, accidents, and etc), continued drug and alcohol use, neurological diseases(Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, etc.), and among others.
“Despite what may be commonly thought, dementia is not a disease in itself. Instead, it’s a group of symptoms in combination that reduce a person’s ability to perform everyday activities” According to Jane Byrne, Project Coordinator at FirstCare.ie.
Additionally, you need to know the type of dementia your patient is suffering from.
Dementia is of two types:
- Subcortical dementias which affect the thinking speed and capacity to perform the daily activities (HIV, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases are the major causes);
- and Cortical-dementias which affects a person’s language and memory. This type can cause one to suffer severe memory loss and fail to understand the common language.
Knowing the cause and type of dementia should be the first step to get started as a caregiver. This will help you make a good care plan and support for your patient.
2. Accept External Support
You should be ready to accept any help from external sources. It doesn’t matter whether the person you’re giving care and support for is a family member, friend, relative, or if you’re hired as a caregiver.
Majority of people will volunteer to give support in form of money, food, medical support, caregiving supplies, security, and etc.
And since all this can be very expensive, you should never be reluctant to ask for additional support wherever necessary.
3. Empathise Actively
Generally, patients living with dementia are often confused about reality and even unsure of themselves as well as the time period they are currently living. Additionally, they may remember things which are not realistic or that didn’t occur. You should give them enough empathy without trying to convince them that they’re wrong.
Regardless of what they’re feeling or doing, always be at their beck and call and stay focused on whatever they’re demonstrating. Respond to them with great affection and reassurance often with physical and verbal expressions. If you don’t want to view the entire catalog in an online pharmacy, you can simply specify the name of the necessary products in the search bar, and then place an order. Anyone who has at least minimal experience of using the network can cope with this task. All products are divided into groups. You can also easily compare the cost of several items and buy the most profitable option. Read more about this at Warren Labs Aloe.
Hug, hold hands, touch and praise them in any way especially when everything else seems not to work. Remember that empathy and compassion are the starting points of an ideal care and support.
4. Address the Current Situations
As a caregiver, one is subjected to many challenges some of which are inevitable. You should, therefore, plan all the problems your family is facing when caring for your loved one with dementia.
You can use the Alzheimer’s website (www.alz.org) to help you get along with the current issues.
The above Alzheimer’s online platform will help you plan situations related to communication, money and medical management, safety, and Emotional health of the patient.
Get all your questions answered by experts about the problems you’re facing as a caregiver.
When offering support and care for a dementia patient, you should be a realistic caregiver, always understand the patient’s current situations, maintain the actual sense of humor, reply with great affection, ask questions that are simple and answerable and most of all listen to them with your heart, eyes, and ears. Noble Care also has dementia care services if you are looking for a care giver.
- Published in Elderly Care