You’ve noticed a few changes when you’ve visited your parents. Dishes are left in the sink, you find old or outdated food in the fridge and bills are past due. It seems mom and dad haven’t been getting out as much as they once did and they seem a little depressed. You know you need to find someone to take care of your parents, but you are thinking, “I don’t want to care for my elderly parents.”

When people talk about the difference between in-home care and assisted living, cost is often one of the first things mentioned. Of course cost is important, but just looking at cost implies that their services provide the same value for the same price, but that is not the case. The costs associated with in-home care involve hiring someone to come into your home for a set number of hours and provide certain services; whereas, joining an assisted living community is a shift in lifestyle.