What Is a Home Care Package?
Date Updated: December 9, 2024
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Sarah has produced thousands of articles in diverse niches over her decade-long career as a full-time freelance writer. This includes substantial content in the fields of senior care and health care. She has experience writing about wide-ranging topics, such as types of care, care costs, funding options, state Medicaid programs and senior resources.
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Dr. Brindusa Vanta is a health care professional, researcher, and an experienced medical writer (2000+ articles published online and several medical ebooks). She received her MD degree from “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine, Romania, and her HD diploma from OCHM – Toronto, Canada.
A home care package is a personalized schedule of services that enables an older individual to age in place safely, hygienically and comfortably with visiting support. Home care agencies develop service plans with individuals, their families and health care providers, detailing necessary services, preferences, visit frequency and costs.
Typical Services in a Home Care Package
Home care packages include various support services tailored to meet individual requirements and preferences. Services assist those who wish to remain at home and live as independently as possible but need help with activities of daily living or household chores. Aides follow arranged schedules, assisting with specific tasks for a set duration and at specified times. Common services include:
- Housework
- Laundry
- Light yard work
- Basic maintenance
- Transportation
- Errand running
- Grocery shopping
- Meal preparation
- Companionship
- Support with transferring and ambulating
Many seniors also benefit from assistance with personal care tasks, such as bathing, grooming, toileting and dressing. Although home care aides don’t provide medical or therapeutic care, they may perform check-ins and remind seniors to maintain medication routines. Caregivers may also attend to basic continence needs, such as changing adult diapers. However, those who require home-delivered nursing services or rehabilitation therapies usually find home health care more appropriate.
Home Care Package Costs
The price of home care packages varies considerably depending on the exact services an individual needs and the number of care hours. For example, somebody who needs extensive hands-on support with several daily tasks alongside meal preparation, continence care and comprehensive housekeeping duties can expect to pay substantially more than someone who requires light assistance with domestic chores, limited transportation and a couple of weekly hours of companionship.
Location further plays a significant role in how much seniors pay for in-home care. According to Genworth Financial, the 2024 median cost of home care runs $30 per hour across the United States. However, rates vary among states and cities. For example, typical hourly home care fees stand at $21 in Pennsylvania, $23 in Texas, $29 in South Carolina, $32 in Missouri and $34 in Idaho.