Live-in care allows elderly to keep their pets

Of all the reasons to choose live-in care, having to have a much loved pet put down because mum or dad are moving into a care home, is often overlooked.

Yet a survey has found over two million people in Britain say they know an elderly person who had to have their cat and/or dog put to sleep because they were moving into a residential care.

The survey, by the Live-in Homecare Information Hub, also found 20% say the elderly people they know with pets would refuse to go into care without their pets. Additionally, 18.5% said they knew an elderly person who had to have their cat or dog rehomed.

Research by the telephone advice service, the Silver Line, has revealed the extent of the loneliness experienced by elderly people. This evidence provides a graphic insight into one of the most distressing decisions facing a growing number considering moving from their home to residential care: what to do with a much-loved pet that is not permitted to join them.

Up to 71% of residential homes and sheltered housing schemes refuse to allow residents to have pets, according to the Society for Companion Animal Studies, and their refusal is causing current and future generations of elderly people real distress.

This is why with the right professional support from Right at Home, elderly people can stay in their home, close to family, in familiar surroundings with the animal they love: rather than face a future in residential care without them.

The vast majority of older people in the UK don’t want to move into residential care, with what is often an institutional and regimented way of life, away from familiar surroundings, friends, family and pets. In fact, 97% of people feel most comfortable in their own home with 71% wanting to be living in their own home when they are over 75.

The survey also found that the prospect of entering a care home and being separated from their pet could cause some elderly people to consider taking steps that might actually cause them harm.

To avoid going into a home for much-needed care, 17.4% of elderly people would pretend they were in good health. To avoid being separated from their pet, 8.8% would make themselves more ill rather than leave their pet. Shockingly, when asked about elderly pet owners they know who have moved – or about to move into residential care, 4.3% of respondents said they would consider taking their own lives or talk about taking their own lives due to concerns about their pets.

Given elderly people’s fears about moving into a care home and being separated from pets they love, it is little surprise the survey found support for live-in care at home. Over 18% of respondents believed that those elderly people they knew would, if they were aware of live-in homecare, try to arrange it for themselves.

Live-in care is a long established but still relatively unknown alternative to residential and nursing care that substantially extends the care choice available to the individual. It allows someone with high levels of need to remain in their own home and community and lead a good quality life in familiar surroundings.

Right at Home expects live-in care to continue to grow in popularity and to become the high quality first care choice of many people.