When Is 24 Hour Care Needed?
Usually when help is needed at night as well as through the day. Here are the signs families notice, and how to choose between live-in, 24-hour and overnight care.
It may be time for help around the clock when your parent needs someone at night as well as through the day, or the family can't keep covering, and Endurance Home Care can help you choose between live-in care, 24-hour care and overnight care. Endurance Home Care built its Endurance Homebound program around the first 72 hours after a hospital discharge, one of the three moments when families most often ask whether 24-hour care is needed.
Families usually notice it in one of three ways.
The nights get harder
Your mother is up several times a night, needs a hand to the bathroom, or wakes confused and needs someone with her. When the nights need someone awake as well as the days, that’s often the first sign.
Coming home from the hospital
The first days home can call for someone there day and night while things settle. One family described a father coming home after congestive heart failure and being supported through his recovery. Endurance Homebound is our plan for the first 72 hours after a discharge. See our transitional care service.
The family can’t keep covering
Someone in the family has been covering the nights for months and is worn out. That’s a good reason to ask for help, and nobody has to be in a crisis first.
Live-in, 24-hour or overnight: start with the nights
- Does she sleep through most nights?
- How often is he up?
- Does she need a hand to the bathroom?
- Does he settle on his own?
- Is help needed through the day as well?
If your parent sleeps through most nights and needs steady help through the day, live-in care often fits: the caregiver lives in and has a proper night’s rest. If they’re up often and need someone with them each time, the help needs to come from someone awake. 24-hour care has caregivers on awake shifts through the day and the night, and overnight care gives you an awake caregiver for the night hours, alongside your own help or a few hours of care during the day.
Any of the three can be companion care or personal care, which adds hands-on help with bathing, dressing, the bathroom and moving safely. We provide personal care in Connecticut and New Jersey. In New York we provide companion care, by the hour, overnight, live-in or around the clock.
For more detail, see how live-in and 24-hour care compare and overnight caregiver options.
A discharge changes the question from can she manage the day to can she be alone at all this week.
Help around the clock after a hospital stay is often for a stretch. Endurance Homebound plans the first 72 hours after a discharge, while the house is being set up and the new routine is finding its feet. Most families ask for a dense stretch of coverage first and step it down from there, instead of committing to an open ended schedule on the day they get home. As recovery goes on, the schedule can change with it. Give us the discharge date and we’ll plan around it.
Nationally, AHRQ reports that 36.1 percent of all thirty day hospital readmissions happen within seven days of discharge. That’s the general picture, not a statement about any one household.
How we settle the schedule with you
Before care starts
A registered nurse visits at home before anyone is scheduled, listens, and writes the care plan with your family. That's where you'll settle whether someone needs to be awake at night.
Once care is running
Endurance runs a monthly assessment, and the plan is reviewed whenever needs change, so the schedule can change too, whether recovery goes well or the nights get harder.
Who you'll hear from
Your Care Manager keeps the family updated, and a Care Coordinator looks after the schedule and the caregiver match.
Connecticut License HCA.0002450 · New Jersey License HP0435100 · Connecticut DPH License 9915786 (Endurance Home Health).
Helping your parent stay at home
For many families, the real question is whether enough help can be arranged around the house to make staying there work. Help around the clock is one way to do that, and it can be arranged so your mother or father keeps their own routine.
Endurance is private pay. If there’s a long-term care insurance policy, families can use it, and we help with the policy paperwork. Medicare doesn’t pay for 24-hour care at home. Once we know the schedule, we’ll explain what it would cost. See how families pay for care and what live-in and facility care cost in Connecticut. For how live-in care works from the start, read the live-in care guide.
What families ask next
When is 24-hour care needed?
Families usually start asking when help is needed at night as well as through the day: your mother is up several times a night and needs someone with her, she isn't safe on her own for long, she's just come home from the hospital, or the family can't keep covering the nights. If the nights are mostly settled, live-in care may fit. If someone needs to be awake, 24-hour care has caregivers on awake shifts, and overnight care covers the night hours. A registered nurse visits at home and helps you settle the right schedule.
Is 24-hour care needed after a hospital stay?
Sometimes, often for a stretch. The first days home can call for someone there day and night while routines, meals and rest settle again. Endurance Homebound is our plan for the first 72 hours after a discharge, and the schedule can change as recovery goes on, to fewer hours, overnight care or live-in care. Give us the discharge date and we'll plan around it. One family described how Endurance 'helped my dad when he had congestive heart failure' and 'supported him through his recovery.'
Can 24-hour care keep my parent out of a nursing home?
It can help your parent stay in the home they want to be in. With 24-hour care, caregivers on awake shifts are there through the day and the night, for meals, company, getting around safely and help at any hour. A registered nurse visits first and writes the care plan with your family, and the plan is reviewed every month and whenever needs change. Tell us what the days and nights are like, and we'll talk it through with you.
Tell us what the days and nights are like
We’ll help you work out whether live-in, 24-hour or overnight care fits, and explain what each would look like at home. The first conversation is free, and nothing starts until you say so.