What a private carer does in palliative care

An introductory service like PrimeCarers does not provide or manage the care itself; it introduces families to self-employed carers, and the family agrees directly with the carer what each visit covers. Setting that out in writing early, alongside what the district nurses and the GP are handling, avoids anyone assuming a task is covered when it is not. Building a care plan with your carer has a starting template, and what is a private carer? covers the arrangement in full if this is the first time you have looked into it.

The clearest line is the clinical one. A carer is not a nurse: setting up or adjusting a syringe driver, giving an injection, changing a dressing or deciding a medicine dose all stay with the district nursing team. What carers are not allowed to do sets that boundary out in full. What a carer is well placed to do is notice a change between visits, a wound that looks different, a new confusion, a meal left untouched, and pass it on, because they are often in the house for longer and more often than anyone else on the list.

If the illness reaches the point where nights become the harder part, night care at end of life covers who can be in the house after dark and when a paid night carer is worth adding, and our guide to care at home at this stage covers the wider picture once the final weeks are closer.

Background checks on a private carer sets out exactly what each of the four checks covers and what they do not, how we vet every carer covers the process PrimeCarers runs before a profile appears, and private carer qualities has more on what to look for beyond the paperwork.

Money is often the thing that stops a family asking for help at all, and there are three questions worth asking before ruling it out. Has anyone asked the GP or the hospital team whether a fast-track application to NHS Continuing Healthcare applies, since where it is agreed the NHS funds the whole package, including a carer the family chooses through a personal health budget. Is Attendance Allowance in payment, since it is not means-tested and can be claimed under special rules with no waiting period where a clinician says it applies. And if the strain is falling on one family member, is respite care end of life care? and caring for the caregiver both cover ways to get a break built in rather than added as an afterthought. The cost of live-in care sets out the fuller picture once daily visits are no longer enough.

1. 1

   Write down what a visit needs to cover

   Today

   Personal care tasks, medicines by name and time if a carer will be prompting or giving them, what matters most to the person, and what should be passed to the district nurse.
2. 2

   Search carers near you

   Free

   Every profile shows a carer's rate, experience and reviews, and confirms that their identity, right to work and enhanced DBS have already been checked and their online interview completed.
3. 3

   Talk to two or three, and ask about experience

   This week

   Send them the notes you wrote down, ask about illnesses or conditions they have supported before, and ask how they would keep the family informed.
4. 4

   Book the first visits, then adjust

   Week 1

   Start with what you are sure of and add hours as needs change. Hourly visits need 48 hours' notice to change, so very little is lost by starting sooner rather than later.