What is 24-hour live-in care?
24-hour live-in care means that a professionally trained care worker moves into someone’s home full time to live with them and support their needs. A live-in carer will provide full time support for the elderly person, to provide continuous assistance with tasks around the home such as domestic housework, gardening, personal care, food preparation, helping the client to get dressed and undressed, washing clothes, assisting them to get in and out of bed, shopping, and assistance with medication. We provide many care services tailored to your needs.
At an extra cost, you can also request that your trained care worker can drive so they can take you out to the shops, medical appointments, to the hairdressers or barbers and to your community activities such as coffee mornings, knit and natter, to visit your friends or to go to the gym, for example. 24-hour live-in care means that you can continue to live your life as you would have done at home before you needed extra assistance and with as little disruption as possible.
A person may choose to have 24-hour live-in care as they have conditions such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, recovery from an operation, cancer, multiple sclerosis or if they have suffered from a stroke. These conditions mean that the person is struggling with their everyday lives and need that extra support to remain living at home. They could have limited mobility or total loss of mobility.
You may have spent some time in hospital for a serious medical condition or mental health condition and are ready to come home but you will not be discharged from hospital until the hospital is satisfied that you have suitable care to be able to go home.
24-hour care is also suitable for palliative care. In most cases, a person with a life-limiting illness such as terminal cancer will want to spend their last days at home with their loved ones, in familiar surroundings and 24-hour live in care provides this option.
It also provides companionship, especially for elderly people who are living on their own and who are a greater risk of isolation, depression, and self-neglect.
What is around the clock-care?
Around the clock care means that you will be matched to a designated professionally trained carer who will live in your home 24/7. Compared to domiciliary care where you might receive a visit from a trained carer two or three times a day to help with your medication, meal preparation or to help to put you to bed at night, a 24-hour carer means exactly that, they will live in your home and be there for you when you need it. They can be as involved in your daily life as you wish.
A live-in care worker can also collaborate with existing professionals such as domiciliary care workers, physiotherapists, or SALT (Speech and Language Therapy) teams. The live-in carer is trained in a wide range of equipment including stoma care, catheter’s, hoists, wheelchairs and stand aids.
If a loved one needs extra care, it can put extra stress on the family. You may live a long way from your loved one, you also have a busy family life and might be working full time which makes it difficult for you to get away to help with hospital visits, doctors’ appointments, or emergency situations.
It provides safety and security for the client and peace of mind for families. They will have assistance in the middle of the night if needed. If they have a fall for example, with domiciliary care, that may happen when the carer is not there, and your loved one could be waiting for assistance for a long time. With a full-time live-in carer, they have immediate assistance. A carer can provide basic life support and call for the emergency services if required, speak on behalf of the person and be with you until the paramedics arrive.
The distinction between 24-hour care at home and other types of care
There are several options to consider when determining what is the best care for you or your loved one. Options include domiciliary care, assisted living, a residential care home and live-in care. Choosing support is a difficult decision, whilst keeping in mind what is best for you and your family. There is no right or wrong choice.
Domiciliary carers, also known as home carers, hourly care, or private carers, are professionals who help people live independently in their own homes through daily visits. You will receive a personal plan based on your needs and may receive a visit one, two or three times a day to help with household tasks, personal care, medication. This option is satisfactory in many cases, but it does not provide that round the clock care that may be more suited to your requirements.
A residential care home provides accommodation and 24-hour personal care and support to the elderly. They provide residents with a safe place to live, and they will get support with personal care such as washing, dressing, toileting, administering medication and mobility. However, residential care home workers will have several people to look after whereas with live-in care, you get one-to-one care from your care worker.
With live-in care, as well as providing ongoing support, a live-in care worker provides peace of mind to you or your relatives as there is always someone there to put you first and give you support when you need it. You are in control of your life, living as independently as you can in familiar surroundings and you can remain in your own home keeping relationships with family, friends and community.
The advantages of Live-in Care
• You will get a dedicated live-in care worker matched especially to you and working only with you.
• It is fully flexible, and you are not restricted to a scheduled day – you can choose how to spend your day, every day.
• You live in the comfort of your own home and community, supported to maximise independence.
• You can stay with your beloved pets.
• You can eat when and what you want and get up and go to bed when you want.
• You can enjoy full companionship.
The drawbacks of Live-in Care
• New clients may worry about losing their privacy if they have someone living in their home and this is why we train our care workers to respect the privacy of the elderly individual. You will have more privacy with Live-in Care than you would in a care home.
• Cost may be a concern, but it is comparable to a residential care home and you are receiving one-to-one care with live-in care. We have advice on Funding Information and you can talk to our dedicated team who will be able to provide information on how to fund your care.
• Good residential care homes provide entertainment, pop-up shops, quizzes and trips out which has its advantages for an elderly individual but with Live-in Care, your care worker can take you out anywhere you would like to go whether it is to your local football match, shopping, coffee with a friend, to visit family or to go the theatre.
Signs that an ageing parent may require 24-hour care
You may start to recognise that your ageing parent needs more assistance around the home. They may be showing signs of confusion, for example, which is linked to dementia or Alzheimer’s. You can find out more about the conditions that we can care for.
You may notice that your parent or parents are finding it difficult to master daily tasks like shopping, putting the washing machine on, driving, gardening, or cleaning the home.
They may keep having falls both within and away from the home which is causing you concern and distress. You may have had to already install an elderly alarm call button in the event of a fall. These systems can be very useful and life saving but they also have their challenges including the elderly person not wanting to wear their emergency button or forgetting to put it on or pressing it by accident and causing alarm to the family and possibly the emergency services with an unnecessary call out, which costs the NHS millions of pounds per year.
Your elderly parent may be feeling very lonely and depressed as they are spending lengthy periods of time on their own or you may have parents living together but one is under a lot of pressure to provide full time care to their partner, putting extra strain and stress on an elderly individual. You can access 24-hour live-in care for dual contracts, which is also more cost efficient than both having to go into a residential care home.
It can be a very destressing time in your life to work out what is the best to do for your loved one. You have established that they need more assistance but are struggling to work out how to plan this.
Planning and implementing 24-hour care for a loved one
We can offer you personal advice to help ease the stress and help you to decide on what is the best course of action for the safeguarding of your elderly parent/s, which will give you the peace of mind and allow you to continue living your own busy life.
You can contact one of our dedicated and trained team members who will be able to offer you one to one advice based of the individual needs of your loved ones. You can contact us for more information.
We will discuss the personal needs and requirements for you or your loved one and will arrange a home visit to complete a 24-hour live-in care home assessment, if you want to take it further. We will work in partnership to devise a support plan that reflects the chosen lifestyle and routines of the elderly individual.
We go to great lengths to match the elderly individual with a care worker who shares the same values, lifestyle, and interests to ensure they develop a great relationship from the outset.
“Every client is unique – that’s what makes my role exciting. Listening and getting to know my client and making a difference to their life makes caring a privilege, not a job”. Julie, Noble Live-in Carer