What About In Home Care?

I know if I was reading along I might wonder if maybe my brother and I should have listened to my Dad and arranged in home care. I think that is a good question so I'd like to hit the reasons why we decide to try the Garden.

First it was clear that mom had to have someone other than my Dad with her 24/7. Neither my brother nor I were able to do that. We had jobs and families. 

So that meant a service. 

You often hear in home care is cheaper. In my area that didn't prove to be the case. In home care ran about $18 hour. That's $432 a day. This is almost double what even a nursing home charged. The assisted living cost would be even lower. The long term care policy would have only paid part of this cost. The rest would have to be paid from my parents. In the case of assisted living, if we sold their house we would be able to save all their income while the policy paid. 

Further I knew that in home care could be difficult to manage: finding the right person, keeping that person, scheduling supplemental people. I couldn't imagine my dad being able to do that. Even worse I could now begin to imagine that he might make things more difficult. 

In addition in home care, in my opinion, carries a greater risk of a care giver abuse. In a facility there are many staff persons and less ability to isolate a patient. At home an abusive caregiver would have plenty of privacy and ability to abuse my parents.