Four kinds of senior care. Only one of them is ours.
Most families start searching before they know what they are looking for. Here is what each option actually is, what it costs in Atlanta, and how to tell which one a parent needs, including when the answer is not us.
5.0 from 45 Google reviews · Nurse-owned · VA community care
Answered 24 hours a day, weekends included.
Not sure which you need?
Describe the situation and a care manager will tell you straight. We call back within 30 minutes.
Or call now: (404) 383-0778
What each one is, and when it is the wrong answer.
Every agency that sells one of these will tell you it is the answer. Here is each of the four, including the two we do not provide and the cases where ours is the wrong call.
- 01
Care at home (this is what we do)
Who it suits. Someone safe in their own house, who needs help with some of the day.
What it is. A caregiver comes for an agreed number of hours: bathing and dressing, meals, housekeeping, driving, company, or awake cover overnight. The house, the routine and the neighbors stay the same.
How it is paid for. Paid by the hour, so the cost tracks the hours. The least expensive option at a few mornings a week, and the most expensive if someone genuinely needs cover every hour of every day.
When it is wrong. Wrong if the house itself has become the problem, or if someone needs a nurse on site around the clock.
- 02
Assisted living
Who it suits. Someone who is isolated at home, or whose house no longer works for them.
What it is. A private apartment in a community, with meals, housekeeping, activities and staff on hand for personal care.
How it is paid for. A flat monthly fee, usually with care levels priced on top. Predictable, and it does not fall if needs are light.
When it is wrong. Wrong if the attachment to the house is the thing holding someone together, and worth being honest about: most people do not want to go.
- 03
Memory care
Who it suits. Someone with dementia who wanders, or who is no longer safe alone.
What it is. A secured community with staff trained for dementia and a routine built around it.
How it is paid for. More than assisted living, for the staffing ratio and the security.
When it is wrong. Often reached for earlier than it needs to be. Many people with early and middle-stage dementia do better at home, where the rooms are already familiar, with trained cover and a plan for the hard hours.
- 04
Skilled nursing
Who it suits. Someone who needs medical care, not help with the day.
What it is. Licensed nurses on site: wound care, IVs, injections, complex medication management, rehabilitation after a hospital stay.
How it is paid for. The most expensive, and the one most likely to be partly covered by Medicare after a qualifying hospital stay.
When it is wrong. This is the line we cannot cross. We hold a non-medical license, so if this is what is needed, we will say so and point you to the right kind of provider.
Assisted living vs home care: how the two actually differ.
This is the decision most families are really weighing, and it usually comes down to three things rather than a long list.
- 01
Cost behaves differently, and crosses over
Home care is billed by the hour, so a few mornings a week costs well under a community. Assisted living is a flat monthly fee that does not drop when needs are light. The lines cross somewhere around the point where someone needs help most of the day, every day. Ask for both numbers for the hours you actually need, not the hours you fear.
- 02
One is reversible, the other is not
You can start home care with two mornings a week, add hours, or stop, and nobody has given up a house. Assisted living usually means selling or letting the home and is painful to undo if it turns out to have been early.
- 03
Familiarity matters most for the people least able to relearn
Someone with dementia has already learned the stairs, the kitchen and the route to the bathroom. A move asks them to learn it all again at the point they are least able to. That argument gets weaker if the house itself is unsafe, and it disappears if someone is isolated in it.
Where assisted living genuinely wins: when the house has become the problem, when loneliness is the main issue, or when someone needs a person nearby at unpredictable hours and the hourly cost of that has passed the monthly fee.
Why most families try home first
Nearly everyone would rather stay where they are. The argument for home is not sentiment, it is that the stairs, the kitchen and the route to the bathroom are already learned, and that matters most for the people who are least able to learn them again.
It is also reversible. You can start with two mornings a week and stop, or add hours as things change, without anyone giving up a house. A move is much harder to undo.
Care here is supervised by a registered nurse, the minimum is four hours per visit, with no minimum number of days a week, and care usually starts within 24 hours. See what a caregiver actually does, or how it works.
Nobody can quote you honestly without seeing the week.
You get a written number after the home visit, before anything starts. Three things move it.
- How many hoursTwo mornings a week and round-the-clock cover are different businesses.
- When those hours areOvernight, weekend and holiday hours are priced differently from weekday daytime.
- What the work isHands-on personal care sits above help around the house.
Medicare does not pay for this
Not for ongoing help with bathing, dressing, meals or housekeeping. It covers short, skilled home health after a qualifying event, which is a different service. Families lose months waiting for Medicare to cover something it was never designed to cover. If a Medicare Advantage plan is in play, bring it to the call.
Four ways families pay for it
VA programs
Approved Homemaker and Home Health Aide or respite hours, or an Aid and Attendance pension paid to the household.
Long-term care insurance
Most policies cover this once the daily-activities trigger is met. We complete the logs and visit notes insurers ask for.
Georgia Medicaid waivers
Georgia runs CCSP and SOURCE for people who meet the financial and care criteria. We will tell you if it is realistic.
Private pay
Billed by the hour for hours actually worked. No deposit for a block of hours you may not use.
Want a rough number first? Call (404) 383-0778 and describe the week. We will give you a range on the phone.
Senior care in Atlanta: common questions
What is the difference between senior care and home health care?
Senior care is the broad term and covers everything from a few hours of company a week to a nursing home. Home health care specifically means skilled medical care at home, usually ordered by a doctor and often paid for by Medicare after a hospital stay. We provide non-medical senior care at home under a Georgia Private Home Care Provider license, which means a caregiver can remind someone to take medication but cannot administer it.
How do I know it is time to arrange senior care?
The usual signals are a fall, weight loss, unopened mail, medication that is not being taken, a parent who has stopped driving or stopped going out, and a family member who is quietly doing twenty hours a week and is exhausted. Most families wait six to twelve months longer than they should, generally until something forces it.
Is it cheaper to keep a parent at home or move them?
At a few visits a week, care at home is usually cheaper than a community. The lines cross somewhere around the point where someone needs help most of the day, every day. The honest answer depends on the hours, so ask for both numbers before deciding.
Can you help if we are not sure which option we need?
Yes, and that is a normal call for us. A care manager will talk it through and tell you if what you are describing is not home care. We would rather say so than take on a family we cannot help properly.
Which parts of Atlanta do you cover?
We work across Marietta and East Cobb, Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Roswell, Smyrna, Vinings, Decatur, Druid Hills and the surrounding metro. The office is at 3020 Roswell Road, Suite 200 in Marietta. If you are just outside, ask anyway and we will tell you honestly whether we can staff it.
At home, as it should be.
What help is needed, what it costs, and whether the VA covers part of it. Free, with nothing to sign.
Request a call back
A member of the Atlanta team calls back within 30 minutes.
Or call (404) 383-0778 · 24 hours a day, weekends included