Elderly care in Lewisham

It depends entirely on how much help is needed, which is why a single figure is misleading. Carers who cover Lewisham advertise £19 to £20 an hour on PrimeCarers, typically £19, with our fee included. A few hours a week comes to about £76; daily visits of a couple of hours, about £266; and past roughly 35 hours a week a live-in carer costs about the same and is there in between, typically £1,050 a week in Lewisham. The average care home place in England is around £1,160, and a nursing home £1,410. The cost of home care in Lewisham works through all of it.

Not usually, until the care needed becomes close to constant. The average care home place in England costs about £1,160 a week, and that covers the room, meals and staff on site day and night. Daily visits at home come to roughly £266, and a live-in carer, who is there all day and sleeps in, is typically £1,050. So for most people care at home costs less as well as keeping them in their own house. The balance tips when someone needs several staff to move them safely, or nursing through the night. Care at home or a care home compares them properly.

It is rarely one moment. The signs families describe are a fall or a near miss, weight loss or an empty fridge, medicines left in the packet, unopened post, a hospital stay that they do not bounce back from, unexplained bruises, getting lost on a familiar route, or the death of a husband or wife who had quietly been doing everything. Any one of those is worth a conversation; two or three together usually means help is overdue. Starting small, with a couple of hours a week, is much easier than starting after a crisis. Elderly care sets out what to look for.

Everyday care is offered by nearly every carer near Lewisham: washing and dressing, toileting and continence, medication prompts, cooking, and moving someone safely. Clinical tasks are held by fewer, and the section above counts them out of the 52 carers nearest you, so you can see before you search whether the skill your mother needs exists locally. 15 list wound dressing, 14 list peg feeding, 12 list colostomy care. Carers describe their own skills and we do not test them, so ask about training and about the equipment a task needs. Anything requiring a nurse is beyond a carer whatever their experience.

Yes, because you choose the carer yourself and book them directly, rather than an agency sending whoever is on the rota that day. For an older person, and particularly for anyone with dementia, that continuity is most of the value: a familiar face at the door, someone who knows how she takes her tea and which stairs she struggles with. Most families settle on one carer for the regular visits and a second from the same search for holidays and sickness. The same carer every visit explains how families arrange it.

In England the council contributes once savings fall below £23,250, and pays in full below £14,250, after a care needs assessment and a financial assessment. Many councils will pay a direct payment you can spend on a carer of your own choosing. Attendance Allowance is separate, is not means tested, and is worth claiming for almost anyone over pension age who needs help; it is paid whether or not you use it on care. If the need is mainly a health one, NHS Continuing Healthcare can cover the lot. Attendance Allowance and the funding guide explain how to apply.

Usually, and the research agrees, though it is not automatic. Staying at home keeps the routines, the neighbours, the garden and the memories, and for someone with dementia a familiar house does a lot of the remembering for them. It also avoids the upheaval of a move, which older people often take months to recover from. What home cannot give is other people in the building at three in the morning, so the honest test is whether the hours of care can be arranged around the hours of risk. Where they can, home usually wins. Care at home or a care home goes through both sides.

You can see who is available today and message them straight away. Most families are talking to two or three carers within a day or two, and regular visits often start within the week. 245 carers are based within about half an hour of Lewisham, so there is usually somebody free at the times you need. If a parent is being discharged from hospital and you have days rather than weeks, care after a hospital stay and emergency care explain what to do.

Yes. Before a carer appears on PrimeCarers they have passed an enhanced DBS check, an identity check and a right-to-work check, and had an online interview with our team. Their DBS is then kept on the Update Service and monitored for as long as they work. We check that a carer is caring; their skills, qualifications and training are for you to check with them, and every profile shows their experience and reviews so you can. We are an introductory service, not an agency: the carers are self-employed, set their own rates, and the contract is between you and them. How we vet carers sets out each step.