The elderly are safer when looked after at home

The elderly are safer at home: A new report from the Live-in Care Hub reveals that those who have live-in care suffer a third fewer falls and a quarter of the hip fractures than those in residential care and nursing homes.

These common incidents cost the NHS an estimated £2.3bn a year for falls and hip fractures that need hospital admission. That’s approx. £5,744 per patient.

The “Better at Home” report released in late 2016 also found that people receiving live-in care have higher levels of happiness, enjoying home-cooked meals and the sense of freedom and independence that live-in care maintains.

The Live-in Care Hub that produced the Report is a non-profit organisation committed to raising the quality of care in the UK by giving people the opportunity to be cared for at home. The Hub’s members are all providers of live-in care committed to guaranteeing the very highest standards.

Saxmundham-based Christies Care is a member and Dr Freddy Gathorne-Hardy, Director of Christies Care, explains: “There are now 11.6m people aged 65 or over in the UK. Research shows that 97% of people would prefer to be looked after in their own home. Now we have evidence that it’s also safer, happier and more independent for the elderly to stay at home. When you consider the cost to the NHS and society in general of falls and hip fractures alone, let alone bed blocking in other areas, it’s only responsible that the Live-in Care Hub brings these facts to the public’s attention”.

The Report also looks into public guilt regarding how much time we have for our elderly relatives. It is quite clear that more and more of us are unable to see older relatives regularly due to family work and distance pressures. The nationwide survey last year showed 1 in 4 of us feel guilty about not seeing elderly relatives more despite 9 out of 10 of us thinking it’s important to speak to them regularly.

Dr Gathorne-Hardy adds “We at Christies care tend to be flooded from late November onwards with calls from families who have just seen, or started to think about, elderly relatives as they witness their increased frailty and declining abilities. In an ideal world they’d come to us for advice and personalised options long beforehand and can avoid the dreaded ‘Mum needs to go into a home’ default setting. It is definitely NOT the only choice and live-in care offers a life-enhancing, real alternative for all concerned.”