As elder residents of Cambridge face the challenges of aging, it's important to maintain their independence and continue living safely and happily in their own homes and communities. While daily tasks may become more difficult, there are various ways to provide the necessary support and care without resorting to nursing homes. Affordable home care options and companionship can help seniors age gracefully and comfortably, allowing them to preserve their autonomy and quality of life.
Let’s help families discover quality care support and companionship. Ongoing home care doesn’t necessarily need to break the budget!
What home care services typically entail
Home care provides a variety of services to assist people in maintaining their freedom at home. In-home care services are designed to help seniors with everyday activities, give companionship, and maintain their physical and mental well-being. Specialized care programs are designed to assist aging individuals with chronic requirements, diseases, or illnesses in maintaining their comfort at home. Typical senior care services are listed below:
In Home Care:
- Companion Care - caregivers are dedicated to building solid relationships with the people in their care
- Personal Care - many care services offer respectful assistance with personal care needs. This also includes services like fall prevention, mobility assistance and meal preparation
- Safety Care - care providers ensure seniors stay safe at home, even if they are alone
- Seniors and Technology - if your loved one is struggling with social isolation, caregivers can make sure they remain connected to friends and family through video calls, social media, and texting
- Interactive Caregiving - caregivers are there to uplift seniors' lives and ensure they have the best quality of care for their entire health
Specialized Care:
- 24-Hour Care - this service is beneficial for older adults who have safety concerns, are bedridden, or live with a chronic condition. Caregivers can often work in shifts to provide quality services and monitor your loved one’s health at any time
- Overnight Care - caregivers are available overnight to help those with advanced dementia or terminal illness stay safe with companionship at night
- Dementia Care - our memory care services allow a person with dementia to remain where they are most familiar and comfortable: home. Often, caregivers are trained to the best practices of memory care to ensure you or your loved one is safe and healthy at home for as long as possible
- End-of-life Care - care providers are here to provide essential assistance to terminally ill adults and emotional support for their families
- In-Facility Care - although care providers typically offer services within the home, occasionally caregivers do complement care in nursing homes and assisted living facilities
- Post-Hospital Care - care providers often have transitional senior care programs that can help older or disabled adults who are about to be discharged from the hospital
Top 5 Senior Care Options in Cambridge MA - Get your Aging Parents the Best Home Care
We've compiled a list of the best home care options in Cambridge, ordered from highest to lowest rating based on Google reviews. We've also included actual reviews from satisfied customers who have used these services, as posted on public platforms. Take a look at our list to find the best home care option for your needs.
1. CareYaya
4.9 out of 5 stars, 95 Reviews (Google Reviews)
CareYaya is truly amazing! From the enthusiastic students to the professionalism of the young woman taking my mom's information, I was blown away. I cannot say enough about how impressed I am with all of them. What a pleasant surprise for us when found in such a tough situation. We heard great things about the program from the hospital case manager as well as a social worker a few months prior to my mom's fall. This program actually saved us from the (sometimes hopeless) situation we found ourselves in. My mother suddenly needed 24 hour care after a fall that led us to the hospital for over a week. Now that she is home, it has not been easy to find people around the clock- especially for the night shifts. Due to their schedules, this works better for some students. There are many benefits for both my mom (who is 95) and the students who work with her. She has dementia and when she fell, she fractured 3 vertebrae on her upper back and fractured her sternum. The students are interested in the medical field on some level.. from pre-med, students to PTs ....I find it admirable. Thank you CareYaya for working with us. You will never know how much we appreciate your assistance and love shown to our mom.
2. Always Best Care Senior Services - Home Care Services in Cambridge
5.0 out of 5 stars, 4 Reviews (Google Reviews)
Always best care allowed my mom to live fully in her home almost a year longer than she would have without them. They take incredible care of their staff and as a result, me as the family member and devoted son. You freed me up to be my moms son again. Thank you Dave and Lisa and team!
3. Positive Living Solutions
5.0 out of 5 stars, 6 Reviews (Google Reviews)
My family employed Positive Living Solutions to help my 90 year old father manage his medical appointments as he was losing capabilities following a stroke. Una Barrett is a consummate professional, but also a warm, caring, sensitive and very intelligent person. She is attentive to details and kept scrupulous track of all my father's appointments, accompanied him to them and took detailed notes at the doctor's when I could not be present. She tracked all kinds of issues with the pharmacy and with physical therapy. She advocated for him at three different assisted living communities and helped me visit all of them and determine which of them would be the most suitable location for him as his needs changed.
She was particularly useful in helping organize his apartments to help make them comfortable and navigable as he lost mobility. This is her specific training and she is excellent at it.
We employed a number of personal aides for my father, and Una helped interview new ones, established a notebook for them to record what happened during their shifts in order to best communicate between them and with us, and kept track of who was scheduled when. She communicated with me almost daily about the aides, their relationship with my father and also with the atmosphere at the assisted living communities at which he was living.
She was available to help in almost every situation that was needed including accompanying my father to the Emergency Room when no family member was available and advocating for him when ER staff wanted to admit him to a sub par psychiatric unit.
My father, usually a sceptic and not one to suffer fools, took to Una immediately and they formed a close bond that really helped relieve the burden for me, his health care proxy, of caring for him as he declined in mental and physical capacity, and was with us right up to the end. I cannot recommend the services of Positive Living Solutions highly enough.
4. Always Best Care Senior Services - Home Care Services in Belmont
4.9 out of 5 stars, 76 Reviews (Google Reviews)
Always Best Care Senior Services - Home Care Services in Belmont, Cambridge, MA provides personalized and professional home care services to assist seniors with daily tasks and improve their quality of life. Their team of experienced caregivers provide companionship, meal preparation, light housekeeping, transportation, and personal care services tailored to meet each client's unique needs.
5. Tribute Home Care
4.5 out of 5 stars, 23 Reviews (Google Reviews)
I have I used many home care organizations for over 10 years and Tribute is the best and has customer service that is better than the Ritz and Four Seasons combined! They are one of the most caring and responsive businesses I have ever interacted with in over four decades too. I have taken care of two parents who deal with the symptoms of Parkinson’s and Tribute is doing amazing work to respond to a very complex set of changing needs and putting in as much support possible to have as much healing happen fast as we make a lot of life transitions. Thank you Chelsea, Peggy, Andrew, Laura, Zahara, Tarah and Francine and Jemimah and the whole amazing team. They are very highly recommended by the team at my mom’s assisted living community too! Wow! Just wow!
Connect with Caring Helpers Providing Reasonably-Priced Care
By bringing in some part-time private duty caregivers a few hours a week through a reputable service like CareYaya, you can take a lot of daily burdens off your aging loved ones' shoulders. These assistants can lend a hand with basic chores or personal care tasks that have gotten difficult to manage solo, whether due to dementia or physical frailty. CareYaya college students training to be nurses or doctors get special instruction on compassionately caring for seniors before being matched with local clients needing a boost. This way, they can help with assisted daily living care for your aging parents.
Starting rates at $15 per hour provide a reasonable price point for the Cambridge MA aging population compared to traditional home care agencies that often charge double or triple the hourly rates. Scheduling visits from one of those medically-savvy helpers means your Cambridge parents always have someone responsible checking in on them, without breaking the bank!
If grandma needs overnight assistance too, CareYaya can arrange vetted overnight caregivers in her Cambridge MA home as well. Having that reliable overnight care support prevents risky middle-of-the-night mobility mishaps and gives family caretakers well-deserved rest knowing she's in good hands. Rates for overnight elderly care through CareYaya run approximately $120 per night for an 8-hour session – less than half the cost of comparable local care agency options.
Use Handy Gadgets Making Homes Senior-Friendly
Lots of smart new devices can make seniors' homes safer and easier to live in independently these days! For instance, installing one of those voice-controlled Amazon Echo Show smart displays lets your Cambridge folks just ask out loud to adjust room temperatures or hear their favorite oldies station by simply talking to Alexa. No complex remotes required!
And if health emergencies do come up, mobile medical alert systems like MobileHelp give round-the-clock access to help at the push of a button. CarePredict Tempo sensors even automatically notice unexpected changes in normal activity patterns that could signal bigger issues, so families can catch problems early.
Home Modifications to Support Changing Abilities and Ensure Accessibility
As legs get creakier through the years, look at doing some renovations to match your aging parents’ changing physical abilities in their Cambridge home. Start with simple things first, like adding grab bars in the shower, improving lighting in hallways, and moving frequently-used items to easily reachable shelves. These little tweaks go a long way in boosting confidence and self-reliance!
If stairs do become impossible for the folks over time, relocating the bedroom and laundry downstairs removes those hazards. For anyone needing wheelchair access, widening doors or converting a main floor space gets them rolling safely.
Caregiving Support Groups: Lean On Others When Caregiving Overwhelms
Assuming caregiving responsibilities stretches families thin. Taking care of aging family on top of regular life demands can burn you out! When your plate overflows past capacity, lining up back-up caregivers through CareYaya prevents loved ones’ care from falling through cracks on your off days. It saves relationships and everyone’s sanity not to stretch yourself too thin for too long.
Pulling together part-time assistance, handy home adjustments, and staying active in enjoyable community groups, Cambridge seniors can rediscover a sense of purpose and dignity supporting safe, happy aging at home for years to come.
It just takes some thoughtful planning and willingness to positively adjust to new realities when seasons change.