Stay at home
Help your parent stay safely at home, longer.
Most Swiss seniors want to stay at home. With the right support stack, most of them can — for years longer than families assume. This is the 20-point plan we build with you.
Safety at home
- Grab bars and shower modifications
- Falls assessment with an ergothérapeute
- Lighting, rugs and trip hazards
- Personal alarm or smartwatch
- Smoke and CO detectors checked
Daily support
- Spitex schedule that actually fits
- Meals — Casa Reha, Pro Senectute or private
- Cleaning and household help
- Pharmacy delivery and pill organiser
- Transport for appointments
Social life
- A weekly outing your parent looks forward to
- Day-care centre once or twice a week
- Pro Senectute groups in their language
- Family rota — siblings, grandchildren, neighbours
- Pet, plants, music, faith — what makes a day feel full
Medical follow-up
- A médecin de famille who picks up the phone
- Medication review every 6 months
- Hearing, sight, dental, foot care
- Plan for the next hospitalisation, not the last
- Advance directives written and shared
What you take home
A written, tailored stay-at-home plan for your parent.
Not a generic checklist — your parent's actual apartment, actual neighbourhood, actual medical situation, actual budget. Reviewed by us every 6 months as things change.
20
point assessment, in plain language
Staying safely at home.
- How much does home care actually cost, and what does insurance cover?
- Prescribed nursing care through IMAD/Spitex is financed by LAMal — a fixed federal contribution per hour, a daily co-payment capped at CHF 10/day in Geneva, and the canton covering the rest. Practical help (cleaning, errands, meals) is not covered and is billed on an income-based tariff. The single most underestimated cost is round-the-clock presence.
- Who pays for adapting the home — grab bars, a stairlift, a falls assessment?
- A falls assessment by an ergothérapeute can be prescribed and partly covered, and some equipment falls under AVS/AI auxiliary means; PC can reimburse certain costs for those who qualify. Coverage is patchy and item-specific, so it's worth checking each element rather than assuming none of it is funded.
- Can my parent get help with transport to appointments?
- Yes. The Red Cross runs low-cost volunteer transport for home-based seniors (book about 72 hours ahead), the TPG network is accessible with a cantonal subsidy for AI beneficiaries, and medical transport can be reimbursed via PC on receipts. Each suits a different situation — occasional appointments versus regular trips.
- I'm exhausted as the carer. What respite exists?
- Respite is a real, named part of the system, not a luxury. A day-care centre one or two days a week, a temporary EMS stay (UATR, 5–45 days/year), and IMAD carer-support all exist precisely to prevent burnout and the emergency placement it leads to. Treat your own exhaustion as a signal to act, not to push harder.
- How fast can IMAD start, and can we choose the carer?
- Care usually starts from a prescription and a home assessment of needs. Public IMAD and private Spitex differ in availability, languages and continuity of the carer — which matters a lot for someone with memory trouble. We help match the right provider and a schedule that actually fits your parent's day.
- What's the difference between a day-care centre and an EMS?
- A day-care centre is respite: your parent goes for the day and comes home, keeping their routine and social life. An EMS is long-term residence. Confusing the two leads families to over-react and place too early when day-care plus home support would still have worked.
- Is a 24h live-in carer at home a realistic alternative to an EMS?
- Sometimes — but cost and legality decide it. In Geneva a live-in carer is a domestic employee on a binding minimum wage, and genuine 24h cover needs rest and replacements (usually two people or an agency), so the real budget is higher than a single hourly rate suggests. It can be the right answer, but only once you've costed it honestly.
- What should we put in place before the next hospitalisation, not the last one?
- A family doctor who picks up the phone, a medication review every six months, advance directives written and shared, and a plan for the next hospital stay. The point is to get ahead of the next crisis while things are calm — which is also when the stay-at-home plan is built.
Next step
Start the stay-at-home plan
The review includes the 20-point assessment, your parent's personalised plan, and a written summary you can share with siblings and the family doctor.
Available in English and French.