According to data from AgeUK, 4% of the population in the UK aged between 65 and 85 lives in a care home, and 16% of those aged 85 or more live in a care home. But with an ageing population, care homes simply don’t provide the solution to increasing demands, and so other lesser-known areas of care are starting to thrive and grow. One such life-enhancing care solution is live-in care.
How Live In Care Benefits Older People
Clients who move to a residential care home often have to give up too much. Their belongings, their familiar surroundings, local hobbies and social groups, and worst of all for many, their beloved pets; even, in some cases, their lifelong partner. It can be heart-breaking and disorientating for those who have to be torn from everything they know and love.
Live in care prevents that from happening and, instead, ensures the older person needing care can remain in the place they love, but in a way that ensures their safety and well-being.
What is Live-in Care? This is where a trained carer lives in their client’s home so is there to support every need with a plan tailor-made for the client. Medical care, pet care, cleaning, cooking, exercise, companionship – it is all available in a person’s own home. There are numerous benefits to having a live-in carer for the client but also for the person caring for them.
How Live-in Care Benefits The Carer
If you currently work in a residential care home, you may well be happy in your job but, the chances are, you have some commonly shared frustrations. Do you find on a day to day basis:
- You do not have time to provide the level of personal care you would like?
- You are unable to chat to your clients in the way you feel you should?
- You cannot provide the enrichment you would like to your clients?
- You don’t have the time to spend with clients you know are lonely or vulnerable?
You’re not alone. These are frustrations shared by many carers who work in care homes. It isn’t usually the home’s fault, there is just too much pressure on carers to complete tasks in a short space of time. There isn’t the time to give the level of care most carers feel they want to provide.
With live in care, these frustrations will likely disappear completely because, the job provides the time and space for a trained carer to do their job to the best of their ability. With live in care you can:
- Provide companionship
- Provide meals
- Enjoy helping your client maintain and build social connections
- Enjoy helping your client maintain and find hobbies
- Provide individual personal care
- Create a schedule that benefits the client the most
- Ensure your client is as independent as possible
If you’re interested in leaving your care home job and becoming a live-in carer, maybe today is the day to take that next step and enquire about positions with a live-in care provider. It is a growing industry and there are many rewarding jobs out there for hard working, caring people who want to make a real difference.
5 Comments. Leave new
Having worked in a care home setting, I know only too well how limited the time is you have to spend with the residents that really makes a difference to wellbeing. special relationship are formed via live-in care…
Difficult to see how anyone wouldn’t benefit from one-to-one care… and that goes for carers and the person in their care!
More people in the care industry need to know that this is an option for them. It could be good for them and it’s obviously good for the client.
Live in care works so well from both perspectives for both clients and the carers and also gives peace of mind for the client’s family. Definitely a subject to be discussed amongst all concerned, regarding the care options that are available for loved ones in the future.
Useful read!