Nursing homes are taking a real battering during this crisis, through no real fault of their own. The fact is, that during a pandemic, congregated settings just don’t work.
Infection control becomes very difficult and expensive changes are needed to facilities and systems, to ensure that risk is decreased as much as possible.
Even before the crisis, numerous surveys have shown that generally people’s first choice is to age at home and the decision to put a loved into a nursing home in the first place was difficult. With this crisis, that decision has become even more difficult.
However, there is an interesting alternative to a nursing home and that is Live-In-Care. Live-In-Care is where a carer moves into someone’s house to provide the care and support, they need on a one to one basis. Generally, the week would be covered by two different carers, with one covering maybe Monday to Thursday and the other Friday to Sunday.
Live in care allows people to remain independent and mobile, maintain hobbies, keep pets and to stay in a familiar environment. Very often it means them staying close to family members and friends.
Numerous studies have shown, residents in nursing homes only get between 2 and 3 hours one to one contact in a 24 hour period and often have several different carers looking after them over a month. With Live In Care, one to one contact is much higher and with the high level of continuity, also allows the person being cared for to build up a deep relationship with the carer who is looking after them.
Because of Working Time Directive issues, home care companies cannot provide Live-In-Care legally. However, one of the key advantages our platform has, is that because carers on our platform are working for themselves, they can legally and in a tax compliant manner provide Live-In-Care.
We have numerous families availing of this option and we expect this part of our business to grow significantly in the coming months, as families grapple with long term care decisions for their loved ones and feel uncomfortable about the nursing home option.