Living with a long-term condition at home

The point about several conditions is the one families meet first. Your relative may be on tablets from the GP for blood pressure, from the heart clinic for heart failure and from the diabetes nurse, with nobody looking at all of them together. NICE's guideline on multimorbidity, NG56, says this approach should be considered for anyone who finds their treatments or daily life hard to manage, who gets care from several services, who has frailty or falls, or who is prescribed many regular medicines, and it singles out people on 15 or more as at higher risk of side effects and interactions. Our guide to several conditions and many medicines goes through what to ask for.

Your relative's own wishes sit at the centre of all of this. They decide what they want from treatment, and they may choose differently from what the family would choose. If they cannot make a decision for themselves, the Mental Capacity Act sets out how a decision is made in their best interests, but that is a separate step and does not apply because somebody is old or unwell.

Each condition has its own regular review, and the NICE plan includes the timing of follow-up, so ask how often your relative's reviews should be and put the next date in the diary. NHS England asks GP practices to offer a structured medication review to the people who need it most, including those on ten or more medicines and those with severe frailty who are housebound or have had recent falls or hospital stays. If your relative fits that description and has not had one, it is a fair thing to ask for.

The New Medicine Service is worth knowing about too. NHS England describes it as three conversations with the community pharmacist over the first few weeks after a new medicine for an eligible condition is started, in the pharmacy or over the phone, and carers can be involved where your relative cannot give consent themselves. Ask at the pharmacy when the next new prescription arrives.

A carer can remind your relative that tablets, liquids or patches are due, help with the pack, and write down what was taken and when. Insulin injections, blood sugar testing as a clinical task and other nursing tasks are different. They happen only where a healthcare professional, usually the district nurse, has trained the named carer and delegated the task in writing. Otherwise they stay with your relative, the family or the nurse. A carer does not come able to give insulin, and nobody at home starts, stops or changes a medicine without the GP, nurse or pharmacist.

For the family, the useful jobs are the ones nobody else does. Keep an up-to-date list of medicines and the numbers to ring, go to the reviews if your relative would like you there, and look out for slow change across the weeks, which a person who sees them every day can miss.

If you want someone to call in each day to help with medicines, meals and noticing change, you can search for carers near you and compare their rates. You choose the carer, meet them first, and agree the hours and the routine with them directly, and you can keep the same person. One hour a day, seven days a week, costs £126 to £175 a week with carers on PrimeCarers, our fee included.

Every carer has had their identity and right to work checked, has an enhanced DBS check (or PVG in Scotland, Access NI in Northern Ireland) issued within the last 2 years, and has been interviewed online. Carers are insured while they work. There is no way to search carers by condition, and PrimeCarers does not check qualifications, training or nursing registration. What a carer says about their experience of diabetes or heart failure is their own account on their profile, so ask them about it when you talk.

A sudden change needs action the same day. A new temperature, sudden confusion, much worse breathing or a fall are reasons to ring, and the NHS says sudden confusion in particular means going to A&E or ringing 999. A slow change, such as eating less, sleeping more or managing fewer of the jobs they used to, is a reason to book a GP appointment rather than wait for the next review.

Write the usual down. A notebook by the kettle with the morning weight, the blood pressure readings the GP asked for or a line about how the day went gives the nurse something to compare against. If several people help, everyone writing in the same place stops a change from being missed because each person saw only a part of it.

Infections deserve a particular mention, because in an older person with a long-term condition they can make everything else worse at once. Our guide to sepsis signs in an older person sets out the signs that mean ringing 999.

Your relative decides who comes into the room and who the practice can talk to. If they would like you to speak to the surgery on their behalf, ask the practice how to record that, and if they may lose the ability to decide for themselves in the future, a lasting power of attorney for health and welfare is the formal way to do it.

If a carer helps your relative, what they have seen is useful at a review. On PrimeCarers the carers' visit reports sit in your account, and can be downloaded as a PDF for a chosen date range to take to the GP or give to a social worker. Brothers and sisters can be invited to the same account with their own login, so everyone reads the same report.

1. 1

   Claim Attendance Allowance if they are over State Pension age

   Not means-tested

   For someone who has needed help with personal care or supervision for at least 6 months because of a health condition or disability. It is £76.70 a week at the lower rate and £114.60 at the higher rate in 2026/27.
2. 2

   Or PIP, if they are under State Pension age

   Not means-tested

   For difficulty with everyday tasks or getting around that is expected to last at least 12 months. The daily living part is £76.70 or £114.60 a week and the mobility part £30.30 or £80. A new claim cannot usually be made over State Pension age.
3. 3

   Ask the council for a needs assessment

   Free

   The NHS says the needs assessment is free and anyone can ask for one. Someone from the council looks at how your relative manages washing, dressing and cooking, and what would help, from equipment to paid care.
4. 4

   Ask for a carer's assessment for yourself

   Free

   If you look after your relative, you can ask for your own assessment at the same time. It is free for anyone over 18 and looks at what would help you keep going.
5. 5

   Then the council looks at their money

   Means-tested

   If the assessment finds eligible needs, a financial assessment decides whether the council pays towards care. The NHS says someone with savings over £23,250 will not get help with the cost.

Attendance Allowance is about the help your relative needs rather than the help they get. Gov.uk says you do not have to have someone caring for you in order to claim, so it is worth claiming before any help is in place. Our guide to funding care covers each of these in full, including how to fill in the forms and what to do if a claim is turned down.