HOW TO RECEIVE THE BEST CARE IN YOUR OWN HOME

People are living longer nowadays due to advances in medicine and diet, so as we get older home care is something more of us need to think about, and it’s important to choose a provider carefully.

Meet Niki Marshall. Niki is on a mission to deliver care differently. Her aim is to involve clients from the outset building their care package, making sure it’s heavily focused on them as a person. Niki views care not as a fixed product that is delivered off-the-shelf, but as an opportunity to help people continue to enjoy their lifestyle – with help in any areas its needed – adopting more of a personal assistant role. Even the regulator – the Care Quality Commission – have called her approach ‘innovative and cutting edge’.

Niki’s company is Eleos Care, and their approach is based around the Dutch Buurtzorg care model, where they manage care much more closely within a tight-knit group, with the team promoting overall wellbeing as a complete package. This is useful not only to keep care relevant when people’s needs, and abilities change but results in happier clients who see it compliment – rather than invade or interrupt – their lives. In practical terms this means that Niki and her team go beyond the boundaries of traditional care services. Just this week, the team have organised dental technicians and plumbers to attend client’s homes, helped with housework, assisted with personal care, washed hair, sanded and painted a wall and cooked meals!

Niki said, ’When I’m told that a client can no longer do something, I always like to ask, why? What has changed? Do they need more time? Does something need to be adapted? Often we can find a way.’

‘One really simple but effective technique we use to help clients, without them feeling dependant on having to ask each time, is to give them a notebook, where they jot a quick note of the job they want completing and that’s our To-do list for the next visit. Some clients refer to us as their carer, for others we’re their PA!’, says Niki.

“It’s clear that Eleos Care knows how to care, manage and keep individuals at the centre of all they do” Sue Ross - Daughter of Client

‘Sometimes we help connect a client to a company or organisation that they might struggle to find on their own. We work with adults with learning disabilities as well as elderly clients, and we’ve dispensed with clinical-looking uniforms for a friendlier style.’

As well as achieving high scores with clients, Eleos Care places great importance on job satisfaction. From recruiting using a selection method, based on personal values to find the right people, she pays carers above average wages, and encourages ongoing training and professional development. ‘Retaining great staff over the long term is a key aim of the company – care is a vocation and not just a job.’, she says.

Care is an unfamiliar world for most people – how does it work and what are the costs?

www.eleoscare.co.uk

Eleos Care are available for an initial informal chat any time – give them a call to see how they can help you!

0118 449 2456

hello@eleoscare.co.uk