Families treat home care as the permanent plan, A Place for Mom survey finds

Sixty-two percent of family caregivers view nonmedical home care as a long-term or permanent solution for helping a loved one age in place, according to A Place for Mom's 2026 Home Care and Family Caregiving report, covered by Home Health Care News. The senior-care referral platform evaluated its own proprietary survey data from 708 family caregivers with experience with nonmedical in-home care, and its general manager of family sales, Martin Hernandez, said families are more likely to increase or alter home care hours than move a loved one into a senior living facility when health needs change — evidence, he said, that families increasingly treat home care as part of a longer-term plan to keep a loved one at home.

Hiring paid help does not end the family's work. After engaging a professional caregiver, family members shift from hands-on tasks to roles as care coordinators — managing appointments, transportation, and emotional support — and still spend around nine to 13 hours a week coordinating care. Still, 85% of long-term users described home care as good or very good value, and 69% of current users said it reduced their daily stress.

The public benefit and paid workforce beneath that commitment are under strain. Paired Commonwealth Fund issue briefs published July 9 find that use of Medicare's home health benefit — skilled nursing and therapy for homebound beneficiaries — has declined in recent years despite an aging population, held back by misaligned payment and quality incentives, Medicare Advantage plan practices, and workforce shortages. Flournoy Health Systems CEO Faris Flournoy III warns that dementia's unpaid-care burden could push home health workers out of paid work to care for their own relatives. With cost already the top reason families discontinue home care, the open-ended commitment they describe rests on household money, hours, and coordination.