What is a live-in carer?
Live-in care is a type of service where a professionally trained care worker moves into someone’s home full time to live with them and support their care needs. A live-in carer is able to look after the person 24 hours a day and assist with specific needs. Live-in care helps people live as independently as possible at home, whether it is helping with daily tasks, personal care or specialist medical care.
Some people choose live-in care as an alternative to moving into a nursing home or care home for a period of time. This enables them to stay in the comfort of their own homes.
Benefits include the ability to maintain hobbies and interests, staying close to friends and family and enabling people to live the life they want.
Live-in care can also be used for respite care and enabling a carer to take a break from looking after someone.
HomeCare.co.uk: What is live-in care and how much does it cost?
Why did I insist on there being a live-in carer? Roger had gone from having a live-in carer in a hospital to being in a care home with lots of staff to being back in his residence. I was sure he would need a live-in carer while he adjusted to being back at home.
A family member was tasked with researching care agencies and selecting one. However, we were running out of time so I lent a hand.
We arranged meetings with 3 agencies and I would recommend this to anyone who’s looking for a carer of any sort.
One of them had lengthy discussions with the family member on the phone but when they met Roger, they didn’t get him to walk or move from the bed to a chair to assess how much support he would need.
The representative from the other company did nothing but talk about people they both knew, how the company began, his family history and so on. He didn’t do any type of assessment or take his medical history, so there was no way that we were going to employ anyone through him!
The final one came and asked lots of questions. She made lots of notes and she assessed Roger’s mobility and more. She was the one!
We managed to get them in place with little time to spare and it was a success!
Why I think it’s better to have a carer than being in a care home
- you get to stay in your own home
- you are in control of what you want to eat
- you can decide when you want to eat, bathe, sleep etc
- it’s cheaper
- you can go out or have visitors whenever you want to without having to report to anyone else
I’m sure there are more benefits than those listed above but these are the ones that come to mind, at this point in time. For some people, being in a care home will be a better option but that wasn’t the case for Roger.
The cost of care
When we researched the cost of paying for a private carer, we found that it varied between £12 and £33 per hour.
The rates are determined by:
- whether they provide care for the entire day
- if they’re a live-in carer
- whether they are awake all night or
- they drop in at certain times during the day
The quotes for a live-in carer varied between £1300 and £5,000 per week.
Part 7 of 11: ‘How did supporting Roger affect me?‘
Previous articles from this series:
- Part 1: When Roger was diagnosed with PSP
- Part 2: Why we dropped everything and rushed to India
- Part 3: Find out what had to happen before they gave us permission to return home
- Part 4: Finding a care home
- Part 5: Settling into the care home
