Group Home
What is a group home?
Group homes are residential places of living that cater to individuals who have specific care and treatment needs. These needs can be physical, such as in the form of requiring consistent medical administration of certain medications, or mental, such as in the form of providing individual or group therapy to individuals who have suffered some form of trauma, though some individuals suffering from trauma may be referred to trauma centers instead.
Group homes are commonly populated by minors and seniors. Staying in a group home can be a short- or long-term commitment, depending on the needs that the group home seeks to fulfill and the severity of the physical or mental problems that the individual is experiencing.
Group homes are often indistinguishable from other residences when viewed from the outside. Along with providing physical and mental health services, group homes may offer a variety of other services to their residents, such as job training, in order to promote the overall well-being and livelihood of residents.
Why are group homes important in healthcare?
Group homes strike a balance between normalized living while still providing everything the residents need, both medically and psychologically, to function in their daily lives.
For example, staying in a hospital allows patients to receive constant care, but at the detriment of their overall quality of life. Staying in a standard residence allows them a normal lifestyle but without the critical care and treatment that they need. Group homes provide an important balance of both and are the ideal fit for certain patients who can’t quite function entirely on their own but also don’t need fully intensive healthcare or psychological treatment.