Letters to the editor

A home from home

Your first-class report on looking after the elderly suggested that caring for old people in their own homes is cheaper and better than caring for them in care homes (“No place like home”, July 25th). So far as cost is concerned, you pointed to a study that put the saving from staying at home at $4,500 a year. But the average for a group conceals wide variation. A person requiring trained nursing 24 hours a day can be cared for much more cheaply in a nursing home where, for example, the cost of a nurse’s overnight shift can be spread among several residents.

As for “better”, it is true that people say they would prefer to stay in their own homes. However, that preference is expressed without actually experiencing the alternative situations. Being on your own when needing care at home can be a dismal experience. In nursing homes, as I know from my own mother’s experience, staff talk to you and the cheery clatter as they go about their business can make for a better life, as can communal activities and friendships with other residents.

The pandemic has indeed shown that residential care can be perilous. Many of the people affected are of an age and state of health that...