Find out how live-in care enables you to go about enhancing the home environment in ways that aren’t possible with a residential care arrangement.
Enhancing the home environment is a self-expressive process that most of us spend years, if not decades, perfecting.
At the heart of this lies the ability to make independent decisions and present aspects of your personality, both for yourself and for visitors.
In many cases, especially when conditions such as dementia are present, these adaptations go beyond enhancing the atmosphere, and become a form of therapy in their own right.
However, personalising your home is often difficult in residential care settings, where people are required to keep within a certain set of guidelines.
Today, we’ll explore how live-in care enables you to go about enhancing the home environment in ways that often aren’t possible in residential care.
Ideas for enhancing the home environment
Here are some of our favourite ways that live-in care can support you in enhancing the home environment:
1. Decorate spaces to suit your tastes
With live-in care, you can continue to decide exactly how you would like your home to be presented. You can:
- Choose the wallpaper or paint colour to adorn your walls
- Display treasured items from your past, such as memorabilia, keepsakes, awards and trophies
- Select the materials, carpets and upholstery used throughout your home
- Decide what furniture and storage options to keep in your home, and where they should go
Your live-in care team will use their extensive experience to advise you of any potential risks, and help you mitigate them. This will help to reduce the potential for injury.
2. Create and display pictures, photo albums or artworks
Creating photo albums or artworks is a fun, nostalgic process that will help you exercise your creative side.
However, this process can be messy – particularly if you’re using glue, paint or other similar materials. That’s why many care homes are reluctant to let residents try these activities outside of organised sessions.
You can carry out these creative pursuits individually, or turn them into shared activities. For example, you could work on a photo album when relatives are visiting, while taking them through your family history.
Once the creative process is complete, you can display your work around your home and enjoy it every day. These items could simply act as happy reminders, or as conversation pieces for when family or friends pop over for a visit.
3. Listen to your favourite pieces of music
Music is an exceptionally therapeutic art form, especially for people with dementia.
With residents living in close proximity, many care homes have to be cautious about allowing residents to listen to music unattended and without headphones.
This isn’t an issue with live-in care, as you would continue staying in your own home. As such, you’ll have the freedom to sit and enjoy your favourite pieces of music whenever you want.
You could even combine listening to music with a few light activities, such as singing or dancing.
4. Breathe new life into the space
Looking after living things – whether it’s a pet or simply a plant – can foster feelings of independence and give individuals a sense of purpose.
Pets, in particular, provide many benefits for older people, helping to alleviate loneliness, enhance mood, reduce blood pressure/anxiety and increase awareness of self-care needs.
Despite this, most care homes are unable to allow residents to move in with their pets. This is generally due to concerns around hygiene and who will be responsible for looking after them.
With live-in care, you can keep your beloved pets. Your care team will support you in looking after them, helping to fill in the blanks for any pet-related duties you’re no longer able to complete.
This is just a selection of the ways that live-in care enables you to go about enhancing the home environment in ways that aren’t possible with residential care.
Learn more about how live-in care can help enrich the lives of older people by speaking to our friendly team.
