Care in your own home

Carefully chosen home care, with a good-quality provider, is an excellent way to retain your freedom and independence, whilst getting the help you need to stay happy and safe. It can offer the opportunity to stay at home, in your own familiar surroundings, and to retain a quality of life you might have feared lost. Types of services that could be offered include:

• Personal care, such as help with getting dressed or washing.

• Help with eating, preparing and cooking food.

• Help with taking medication.

• Help around the home with tasks such as washing up and laundry.

Why choose home care?

Reasons for choosing home care can vary. Sometimes, after a stay in hospital, someone might find they need some help whilst they recuperate. Others can find that a long-term condition or disability means they need some assistance at home.

After a stay in hospital, someone may carry out an assessment of your situation to see if home care will benefit you. You and your family will be fully involved in looking at what will suit you best if you’d like them to be.

Alternatively, you or those close to you might notice changes in your ability to manage the day-to-day things you normally cope with easily, like preparing meals or looking after yourself. If this happens, contacting Adult Social Care is a good first step towards finding help.

How home care can help you

The level of home care provided can be tailored to meet your needs – from a visit once a day to a much greater amount of support.

Even those with quite significant and debilitating medical conditions can get skilled personal care that can enable them to stay in their own home. Some agencies offer live-in care, where a care worker will stay with you at home to support you throughout the day and night.

Live-in care

For some people, it’s preferable and more economical to have a care worker actually living in their own home. This is called 24-hour live-in care and can provide care to people with very high care needs on a permanent basis. 24-hour live-in care can also provide respite breaks for regular carers and short-term support following hospital discharge.

Live-in care can be arranged for a short period, for example, a week, or on an ongoing basis. Typical charges for this service depend on the amount of care and the particular skills required. Live-in care is also available to people with permanent physical or mental health difficulties who require long-term ongoing care.

Finding the right support

Looking for care in your area? Want to know the quality rating of providers you’re considering? Care Choices, publisher of this Directory, has a website providing comprehensive details of care providers as well as essential information.

You can search by postcode, county or region for care homes, care homes with nursing and home care providers that meet your needs across the country.

Your search can be refined by the type of care you are looking for and the results can be sent to you by email. They can also be saved and emailed to others.

The website includes detailed information for each care provider, including the address, phone number and the service’s latest CQC inspection report and rating (see page 54), indicating the quality of care provided.

You can also view an electronic version of this Directory on the site and have it read to you by using the ‘Recite Me’ function. Visit

www.carechoices.co.uk

The Care Quality Commission (www.cqc.org.uk) is responsible for checking that any care provided meets essential standards of quality and safety. Further information is on page 54. 

 The Homecare Association requires its members to comply with a code of practice. This code includes a commitment to treat customers with dignity and respect and operate at a level above the legal minimum required in legislation.

Social care regulations do not apply to cleaners, handypersons or gardeners. However, some home care agencies are increasingly providing staff who can help meet these needs too.

The benefits of using a regulated agency include: • Assessing your care needs and tailoring a plan to meet those needs. • Advertising, interviewing and screening suitability of workers. • Arranging necessary insurance cover. • Providing training and development for care workers. • Managing workers’ pay, including compliance with the National Minimum Wage. • Managing employment relationships, including sickness, absence and disciplinary matters. • Managing health and safety issues.

For further help when speaking with home care agencies, use the checklist on page 23.

Living with dementia at home

Dementia is not a disease but a collection of symptoms that result from damage to the brain. These symptoms can be caused by a number of conditions. The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease.

Common symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia include: • Memory loss, especially issues with recalling recent events, for example forgetting messages, routes or names, and asking questions repetitively. • Increasing difficulties with tasks and activities that require organisation and planning. • Becoming confused in unfamiliar environments. • Difficulty finding the right words. • Difficulty with numbers and/or handling money in shops. • Changes in personality and mood. • Depression.

More detailed information about the symptoms of dementia is available on the NHS website. Visit www.nhs.uk

How can I reduce my risk of dementia?

What’s good for your heart is good for your head. A healthy lifestyle can reduce your risk of developing dementia when you get older. It can also prevent cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke or heart attacks. Find out what you can do to reduce your risk of dementia at www.nhs.uk/conditions/dementia/

dementia-prevention

Become a Dementia Friend

Dementia is a confusing and scary disease, both for those who live with it and those who care about someone living with dementia. By becoming a Dementia Friend, you can understand more about dementia and learn that offering a little support can make a lot of difference. Visit www.dementiafriends.org.uk for more information.

Living well with dementia

Worcester Dementia Action Alliance is helping to raise awareness of what you can do to reduce your risk of dementia and how we can all help people living with dementia. You can get involved in your local area as a volunteer and help to create Dementia Friendly places and communities. Find out more at

www.dementiaaction.org.uk/local_alliances /20687_worcester_dementia_action_alliance

In Worcestershire, we have dementia friendly towns, supermarkets and businesses.

Look out for the dementia friendly logo in your local community. It may be that your local supermarket has a slow lane with extra help in place for people living with dementia.