Respite care during house move?

All about caring
1

I’m wondering if I can get my caree into respite care somewhere to alleviate the stress of a house move as much as possible. I’ve had a look at my local authority’s website and find it totally impenetrable with regard to respite care. My main concern is that we wouldn’t know the moving date until a month before, which leaves maybe 3 weeks to sort something out for, say, a couple of weeks. That sounds incredibly tight to me.

Does anyone have any general suggestions/comments, please? She’s just turned 65, which I suppose at least qualifies her for “old people’s homes”, or whatever they call them these days. Really looking for somewhere where she can stay quietly, have meals provided, be given a hand getting to the bathroom if she needs it (or probably everything is ensuite these days anyway?) and just stay in bed most of the time, with not too much fuss being made of her, as she can only tolerate strangers for a short while.

2

Hi Nikiya.

Internet search … TEMPORARY RESPITE CARE … produces many results , both guidance and commercial operators in this field.

One of the better guidance sites , NDirect :

Temporary stays in a residential care or nursing home | nidirect

Mention is made of Direct Payments to achieve this … which intails an approach to the LA.

More on the financing thereof from Which? :

Changes to Which? Later Life Care - Which?

As for vacancies for temporary respite care , another real post code lottery.

No doubt , monies are a factor here … widens the field ?

Whatever transpires , a gut decision … unless the caree can take a test drive beforehand ?

3

Hey

My Dad had a few periods of temporary respite. Our local council had a list of beds which was updated daily and could be allocated at short notice if needed. Call your local council and try and speak to the Adult Social Care team.

Does your caree have less than £23k in savings? If so Local Authority should pay for the care.

If caree has over £23k they will most likely have to pay for respite themselves. In which case you might want to contact local care homes and see if they do respite and arrange it yourself. Advantage of this is that you can find somewhere you and caree are happy with. My Dad also kept himself to himself and that was fine. Yes, you are right, most homes have ensuite these days.

4

“Try” being the operative word! 30 minutes on hold as standard. Emailing them might be easier.

Thanks for the suggestions, though. I did find the housingcare.org website, which seems useful.

5

When dealing with Social Services, ALWAYS use email if possible, so you have a trail.
Have a look at the council’s website, there should be a Complaints Form you can fill in online.
I’d email them and say how can I arrange anything if I can’t even get through to you.
My phone has a timer on it, really useful, then I can record the date I rang, the number I rang, and how long I hung on for, who I spoke to etc.
Keep a diary from now on, and don’t let them avoid their statutory duties.