Hi everyone.
At the end of my tether, been caring for my mum 24/7 for ten years now. She lives with my husband and myself.
I do nearly everything for her, and she is very reliant on me, and hates when I’m not around. Aside from her physical disabilities, she has chronic anxiety, and excessive moaning capacity!!
My husband and I really need a decent holiday. We would dearly like to take 3 weeks away at the end of the year, but just cannot find a residential home that we can prebook. There are a few that will give us respite a week in advance, but nothing we can book for December or January, and then book our special break.
Has anyone else come up against this? If so how did you solve it? If indeed you did!
By the way, we are South Devon, so would need close by, as she couldn’t travel more than an hour or so.
Hi Helena.
Two lifted from an Internet search … SOUTH DEVON PREBOOKABLE RESPITE CARE HOMES.
First link contains several likely candidates :
https://www.carehome.co.uk/care_search_results.cfm/searchcounty/Devon/searchchtype/respite-care
Probably more but I stopped at two.
CAVEAT EMPTOR … buyer beware ?
As for ratings … try which ever one and add RATINGS to an Internet search.
Thanks Chris, but I have already tried most of them. I googled it a couple of weeks ago. They are the usual story. They MAY have a vacancy, they’ll confirm the week before!!
Thanks Helena.
Nothing ventured , nothing gained ?
Short odds shot … AGE UK … should be meat and drink for them … contacts at the very least ?
Sad state of affairs when I add CAVEAT EMPTOR to the above ?
( Especially if an insurance product ? )
Happy hunting … just a question of time , hopefully ?
An alternative might be to have a live in carer, either via an agency or individual advert, but again make sure you check references etc
I often dream about respite. Respite is merely a temptation to keep you on your toes. It’s the carrot that authorities dangle in front of you to keep you going. I don’t know how desperate you have to be to get it. It’s almost akin to buying a lottery ticket and winning. Sound familiar?
I think of all the ways around it that are out of the box. I think of all the friends we know who might like to come and spend a week with my Mum in our idyllic rural surroundings, with pure fresh air, four cats…everything provided…and she is no trouble with other people. She even finds her sense of humour when others are around. She loves the attention. So what stops me. Where do we find these so called willing friends? Why isn’t there a carers forum where we can match like with like?
But then I have been thinking outside of the box for years…and so far…it seems only me that does it.
Surely there must be other carers who would like to…erm…dare I say it…swap for a week? That’s everything from animals, pets, behavioural problems, personality disorders. Is there anyone out there with a broad sense of humour and a lot of patience?