About a year ago, your mother started receiving twice-weekly home care visits from a home health aide who helps her keep up with daily routines and doctor appointments. But lately, you find yourself wondering if she might need more help.
Frequent falls, missed medications, growing confusion, and caregiver burnout are often signs that a loved one’s current home care plan is no longer enough. And over the past couple of months, your mother has fallen twice, forgotten to take her pills many times, and increasingly spends all day on the sofa.
Rather than an obvious crisis, it’s more often a gradual buildup of warning signs that reveal the need for changes in home care. In this article, we’ll walk through the most common signs that a loved one’s current care arrangement may no longer be enough, what increasing support can look like, and how families can navigate that decision.
Why Families Often Adjust Home Care Support
If you’re considering making changes to a loved one’s home care support, know that you’re far from alone. Adjusting care needs over time is often necessary to safely preserve your loved one’s independence and well-being.
How care needs change over time
Home care needs rarely stay the same forever. Changes in physical or cognitive health may require additional support as the older adult ages.
For example, a loved one who once only needed help with housekeeping or transportation may eventually need assistance with bathing and medication after falling and breaking their hip.
As needs evolve, adjusting the level of care can help ensure that older adults can remain safely at home for as long as possible.
The difference between starting care and increasing it
The good news is that increasing home care support is often simpler than arranging care for the first time. You’re no longer wondering when to start home care for aging parents, but how to make the most of it so your family can thrive.
Expanding care support is often just a matter of reassessing needs and adjusting an existing arrangement. This process also tends to be easier for the individual receiving care, as they’ve already established a home care routine.
What Physical and Safety Signs Should Families Watch For?
Physical changes are often among the first signs that a loved one’s current level of care may no longer be enough.
Frequent Falls or Near-Misses
Falls and near-misses are among the clearest indicators that additional support may be needed. Even if a fall doesn’t result in a serious injury, it can signal underlying factors that put the individual at risk for another fall.
Unexplained Injuries or Bruising
Frequent bruises, cuts, or burns that result from everyday activities — like cooking, getting dressed, or using the bathroom — can be a sign that your loved one is no longer able to perform common tasks safely.
Declining Mobility and Difficulty With Daily Tasks
Families should also pay attention to any changes in their activities of daily living (ADLs), such as taking fewer showers or cooking less often.
What Health and Medication Warning Signs Indicate a Care Gap?
Health-related changes are some of the more obvious signs that your loved one’s current level of support may no longer be enough.
Missed or mismanaged medications
Medication schedules often become more complicated with age as health needs change. Cognitive decline or dementia can make medication even harder to manage — increasing the risk of missed doses, medication errors, and confusion about prescriptions.
Poor Nutrition
Weight loss, reduced appetite, or dehydration may indicate that your loved one is struggling to prepare and consume nutritious meals independently.
Worsening chronic conditions
A chronic health condition that once felt manageable may eventually require more support as an older adult’s health changes. For example, growing mobility limitations may make diabetes harder to manage or cause blood pressure to become more difficult to keep in check.
Frequent ER visits or hospitalizations
Repeated trips to the emergency room can indicate that the older adult is struggling to stay healthy at home. Falls, medication errors, dehydration, or worsening health conditions can all point to care gaps.
Additionally, conditions such as heart failure, COPD, or advanced diabetes may eventually start to require a higher level of care at home to prevent further hospitalizations.
What Changes in the Home Environment Signal More Support Is Needed?
Even if your loved one appears to be in good health, the state of their home can reflect that new challenges have arisen.
Neglected Household Tasks
Piles of laundry, dirty dishes, or overdue home repairs can all signal that everyday responsibilities are becoming difficult to manage.
Unpaid Bills and Financial Disorganization
Stacks of unopened mail or overdue notices may indicate that your loved one is struggling to manage finances independently.
Signs of Wandering or Confusion at Home
Older adults may feel disoriented or wander around if they’re malnourished, have an acute medical issue, or are in the early stages of dementia. These behaviors can create serious safety risks, like stoves being left on or getting lost.
What Emotional and Social Shifts Point to a Care Gap?
Changes in emotional well-being or social interaction can also reveal a need for more support at home.
Increased Withdrawal and Mood Changes
A loved one who pulls back from hobbies, social activities, or family interactions may be struggling with changes in their physical or cognitive health. Increased anxiety or irritability can also be signs that additional support is needed.
Caregiver Burnout as a Care Gap Signal
Family members often assume that managing caregiver burnout is simply part of the job. However, if exhaustion and stress levels start to become crushing, it can be a sign that the current care plan may not be working.
What Are the Options for Increasing Home Care Support?
Adjusting home care support can look like increasing hours or switching to a licensed medical provider (or both), depending on your loved one’s needs.
Increasing aide hours or adding overnight coverage
Additional daytime support or overnight coverage is useful when mobility, safety, or medical concerns have begun to arise after hours.
Moving to 24/7 or live-in care
Older adults who have started to experience frequent injuries or confusion may no longer be safe spending long periods of time alone. In these cases, live-in or 24/7 care is a good option.
When skilled nursing support may be needed alongside aide services
Some situations require a higher level of medical oversight. Following a hospitalization, surgery, or progression of a chronic illness, families may need to switch from home health aide services to skilled nursing services.
How Can Families Assess Whether Care Needs to Change?
It can feel painful watching your loved one struggling at home, especially if you live further away. If you’re seeing signs that your loved one’s home health care needs to be adjusted, don’t hesitate to reach out to your home care provider or medical team for assistance.
Questions to ask yourself and your loved one’s care team
If you’re unsure whether your loved one needs support at home, consider the following questions:
- Have falls, injuries, or safety concerns become more common?
- Are they missing medications, meals, or appointments?
- Are household tasks regularly piling up?
- Have there been recent ER visits, hospitalizations, or changes in health?
- Are family members taking on more responsibilities than they were a few months ago?
- Do problems tend to occur when no caregiver is present?
How an updated in-home care assessment works
Since your loved one is already receiving home care, the process will feel familiar. During a subsequent in-home care assessment, a care coordinator will come to your home to evaluate changes in mobility, cognition, health conditions, and daily functioning to identify gaps in support.
When to involve a physician in the conversation
If you’ve noticed significant changes in your loved one’s health, behavior, mobility, or cognition, it’s worth looping in their physician sooner rather than later. A doctor can help determine whether there’s an underlying medical issue driving those changes and guide home care decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions About Increasing Home Care Support
What Is the 40/70 Rule for Aging Parents?
The 40/70 rule is a guideline that adult children should begin discussing aging care plans when they are around age 40, and their parents are around age 70. The goal is to start conversations before a crisis forces major decisions.
How Often Should an 80-Year-Old Shower?
80-year-olds often shower several times per week rather than every day, as showering often becomes more challenging or uncomfortable with age. However, frequency ultimately depends on the individual’s mobility, health needs, and preferences.
What Are the 3 Rs of Caregiving?
The 3 Rs of caregiving are Reassure, Redirect, and Rest. This framework helps caregivers to reduce confusion and agitation among those with Alzheimer’s or dementia.
At What Point Do You Put Your Parents in a Nursing Home?
Many families consider a nursing home rather than in-home care when their loved one requires 24/7 medical supervision or can no longer safely manage daily tasks.
Need to Adjust Home Care? We’re Here to Help
Caring for an aging loved one often means balancing two competing goals: keeping them safe while preserving their independence. When care needs begin to change, it can be difficult to know where that line is.
If you’re noticing potential gaps in your loved one’s home care support, a care reassessment can help your family determine whether additional services would be beneficial.
Get started with home care today, or contact our team to discuss options to increase support.