Hi. I'm new to the forum. Nice to meet you all.
I joined as I (and my family) am/are increasingly in need of advice and it looks like a fantastic space for people to share their situations and suggestions. I hope i will be able to contribute from my own experiences to help other people too.
My mother has Alzheimer's and currently still lives at home on her home. My sister lives about 15 minutes away and does almost all the caring. She works full-time. My mother lives in Lancashire, but I live and work in London, so it is very difficult to get back as often I would like.
My mother currently attends a day care centre two days per week (one of which is free and the other she has to pay for.) Social services have been incredibly inefficent so far..at the last community care assessment the social worker didn't think that my mother needed any additional support, which is far far from the case. The worker hasn't even written up the notes from the assessment.
My mother needs much more day round support than my sister is able to provide, but we would like to keep her in her own home as long as is feasible.although we are starting to think about care homes aswell.
As social service won't offer any additional support, we are looking at getting a private care company in for the days that my mother doesn't attend the day centre. My mother is also suffering from depression (and the doctors want to put her on anti-depressents, but I'm worried about the longer term implications of her being on medication). I think that activities, having other people around to talk to, going out on trips,etc will do more good that the medication. But that seems very difficult to arrange and co-ordinate aswell.
I'd really welcome any tops tips from people who have been in a similar situation,and/or currently have additional home care support and the keys things we should ask the company when choosing one.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
William.
I joined as I (and my family) am/are increasingly in need of advice and it looks like a fantastic space for people to share their situations and suggestions. I hope i will be able to contribute from my own experiences to help other people too.
My mother has Alzheimer's and currently still lives at home on her home. My sister lives about 15 minutes away and does almost all the caring. She works full-time. My mother lives in Lancashire, but I live and work in London, so it is very difficult to get back as often I would like.
My mother currently attends a day care centre two days per week (one of which is free and the other she has to pay for.) Social services have been incredibly inefficent so far..at the last community care assessment the social worker didn't think that my mother needed any additional support, which is far far from the case. The worker hasn't even written up the notes from the assessment.
My mother needs much more day round support than my sister is able to provide, but we would like to keep her in her own home as long as is feasible.although we are starting to think about care homes aswell.
As social service won't offer any additional support, we are looking at getting a private care company in for the days that my mother doesn't attend the day centre. My mother is also suffering from depression (and the doctors want to put her on anti-depressents, but I'm worried about the longer term implications of her being on medication). I think that activities, having other people around to talk to, going out on trips,etc will do more good that the medication. But that seems very difficult to arrange and co-ordinate aswell.
I'd really welcome any tops tips from people who have been in a similar situation,and/or currently have additional home care support and the keys things we should ask the company when choosing one.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
William.