I’ve got experience of arranging 24/7 care for Mum that worked for a year and a half. It is however a very stressful process. First Carer I employed via an agency turned up to my mothers house steaming drunk with an open bottle of cider in her bag. Needless to say, she didn’t stay but was a stressful experience with my mum being newly out of hospital. I had to make arrangements with another company and delay my return to work. Had a Carer then who was OK although my Mum wasn’t that keen on her and she left me in the lurch for Christmas. Next I had someone whose personal circumstances meant long stints were favourable to her so I was able to cover most of the holiday time so that worked fairly well. One of the relief carers for daily breaks couldn’t cope with my mum and I would get phone calls at work saying my mum had run out into the street and my mum found all this coming and going fairly stressful. I’ve also had the experience of putting my mum into full time care during a pandemic. The home is good but mum has hugely declined and visit situation is not good. I don’t think there is any good easy option at the moment. Home care is as others have mentioned very expensive. Not sure this has been helpful. I feel like 24/7 care at home people think is a perfect solution but it requires dedication and plenty of involvement to keep running smoothly. Despite the huge mark up the care company took, I found them to be unprofessional towards the end and dealing with them was stressful. Only my experience. Good luck with whatever you decide
Employing 24hour Care at Home
- Thread starter Bunty2410
- Start date
Desperately trying to keep dad in moderate stage in his own home having moved in for 10 months after mum died suddenly, I tried 2 live in care agencies as I needed to return to my life back home.
Despite the assurances that all their carers were well trained and experienced in all things dementia I didn't find that to be the case. The second carer and agency I tried gave me great cause for concern and I terminated the arrangement on the spot after a week and stepped back in whilst looking for a dementia care home. I had lost trust in live in care and felt dad was too vulnerable 1 to 1. It made me realise that dad needed the expertise of a true dementia care home and with more carers around him.
Live in care probably does work for some if you get a very good dementia carer and some will continue through to end of life but I would imagine that depends on factors like medical need or challenging behaviour.
However, it was very expensive and as dad was a night time pacer and wanderer a second night carer was needed so the live in carer could sleep, maximum of 2 disturbances even if the client doesn't need help just making a noise going to the toilet, although dad was to be fair up walking around the house most nights, counted otherwise a 2nd carer needed. Plus I was doing 2 hours cover each day for the carer to have down time. I covered weekends so 6 years ago the cost was around £850 Mon to Fri plus £60 each night. Food for the carer and all household bills were still obviously to be met as well.
I really wanted live in to work for dad but it wasn't to be
Despite the assurances that all their carers were well trained and experienced in all things dementia I didn't find that to be the case. The second carer and agency I tried gave me great cause for concern and I terminated the arrangement on the spot after a week and stepped back in whilst looking for a dementia care home. I had lost trust in live in care and felt dad was too vulnerable 1 to 1. It made me realise that dad needed the expertise of a true dementia care home and with more carers around him.
Live in care probably does work for some if you get a very good dementia carer and some will continue through to end of life but I would imagine that depends on factors like medical need or challenging behaviour.
However, it was very expensive and as dad was a night time pacer and wanderer a second night carer was needed so the live in carer could sleep, maximum of 2 disturbances even if the client doesn't need help just making a noise going to the toilet, although dad was to be fair up walking around the house most nights, counted otherwise a 2nd carer needed. Plus I was doing 2 hours cover each day for the carer to have down time. I covered weekends so 6 years ago the cost was around £850 Mon to Fri plus £60 each night. Food for the carer and all household bills were still obviously to be met as well.
I really wanted live in to work for dad but it wasn't to be
Those are actually very valid points raised about actual quality and capability of the home care provider too. The agency supplied a selection of lovely, but very young girls who really struggled with MIL. The first one messaged me day and night about issues and problems and how she was finding her hard to deal with, which whilst I understand why, sort of defeated the point as MIL was paying £6500 per month to the agency, supposedly to provide her with care, not for me to keep having to sort out things they couldn’t cope with. The second girl walked out because she was exhausted as MIL kept her awake all night and then kept calling the carer when she was trying to catch up on her sleep in the afternoon. The third carer they sent had been a social worker in Romania and was older and more experienced. She was the one who confirmed that, as we suspected, home care wasn’t working as MIL was so incontinent that her bed needed changing up to four times a night, even with pads, and consequently, her hygiene was compromised. The last carer also left the agency herself soon afterwards as she felt it was more about profit than care.
Thankyou all for your insights. Mother hasn’t fallen for a week? so that’s a bonus. When I visited last Friday the falls had obviously started to make her think more about her situation and we had an unplanned talk about the benefits to her that residential care would bring. My son was also with me ( they have a fantastic relationship) whose opinion she also sort. It was all very calm none of the blustering of “I’m not going in a home, the only way I’ll leave this house is in a box!” So we may be making progress, on the other hand she may have totally forgotten What was said by the next day.
I interviewed someone sourced via a self employed carers platform on Friday, thought I’d hit the jackpot until I asked how long she’d been using them, she said a month but all they were interested in was taking their cut and they hadn’t followed up the references she’d supplied them with. Interview went well then I asked about sorting out the contract/agreement “ oh I’ve done 2 jobs via the platform but never had an agreement“ Although as a person she was lovely everything else rang alarm bells so I’m still looking.
I interviewed someone sourced via a self employed carers platform on Friday, thought I’d hit the jackpot until I asked how long she’d been using them, she said a month but all they were interested in was taking their cut and they hadn’t followed up the references she’d supplied them with. Interview went well then I asked about sorting out the contract/agreement “ oh I’ve done 2 jobs via the platform but never had an agreement“ Although as a person she was lovely everything else rang alarm bells so I’m still looking.
