Does Anybody use waking night carers?

[sford91]

and if so what do you think of them?. Mum lives by herself and has carers going in AM and PM however the past week has on 3 occasions had life line out and my sister- this is driving her to despair as shes absolutely emotionally and physically drained in the mornings then has to go to work. We are thinking about getting a carer through the night who can stay in the house and support mum should she struggle through the night. Just wondered of peoples experiences?

 

[Perfectdaughter]

Sounds like you need to get some support in. Is there a spare bedroom? The agency we used to use offered on call night carers for 12 hour sleeper duties - I quote: 'These calls should not be longer than one hour accumulated time and not be a nightly occurrence. Calls in excess of two per night will be charged at night duty rate.'
I never had to use this service as my father was ok at night, but things changed when he broke his hip The practice nurse at the GP surgery recommended a team of private carers whose client had recently died. My father now has 24 hour live in care from the team - the carer gets up in the night if he needs her. She sleeps in the bedroom next door to him and can hear if he wakes up.

 

[sford91]

its not every night by any means, but its more so we know she is okay through the night as my sister can't keep going out to her. She does have spare room. We are at GP on Monday so will see what they suggest. We have some numbers for local care companies.

thanks

 

[Perfectdaughter]

My father was waking every night, very agitated and the carers had to work so hard to reassure him and calm him down. Exhausting for everyone involved. The Mental Health team was alerted by the GP and prescribed Memantine and Trazadone at night, which has worked for the past 10 months. He now sleeps well most nights, but I have the reassurance that if he does wake there is a carer in the next room.
Hope you can find a good solution for your mother. Another avenue for you to explore might be her neighbours. A couple of my father's neighbours gave me recommendations for private carers who worked for elderly people in the area.

 

[SisterAct]

We had a night carer for Dad to give us a break. We actually put a baby monitor in Dads bedroom so the carer could actually get to bed and if he called they would get up to see to him.
We were charged for a sleeping night but if the carer was woken more than three times in the night then they would charge us for a waking night (which was fair enough).
One thing we insisted on was consistency, which I know is always possible. So we had two designated carers that Dad got to know really well, felt safe with and trust.