Domiciliary Care

Unlike residential care, where many people have to sell their homes to fund living in a care home, you’ll never have to sell your home to pay for live-in care as you’ll continue to reside there.

Unlike residential care, where many people paying privately pay more so the provider can ‘top up’ what local authority-funded residents pay, ENA clients pay only what their care needs require.

For many people, the cost of live-in care is comparable to the cost of residential care, but without the upheaval of leaving the comfort of your own home, which for many is priceless. Live-in care can be even more advantageous if a partner needs care, too. We offer a range of services, from respite to long-term live-in care, offering total flexibility for individuals and families alike.

Care and support with the ENA Care Group includes a fully managed service regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This means you can be safe in the knowledge that all of our care and support services are overseen and properly accounted for.

Accessing care and support from a fully-managed service means you are paying a fixed, all-inclusive rate for a service that is entirely personalised to you. We regularly review care plans and, should your needs increase to a point where additional care and support is required, we will communicate and discuss this clearly with you at all times.

The choice you make about how to fund your care is entirely personal to you, your family and your circumstances. Given that many people have more than one option available to them, we would always advise discussing personal circumstances with a professional, and independent, expert. Please ensure you choose someone who is qualified to give this advice and ideally isn’t looking to sell you a product or service – impartial information is crucial in helping you to make an informed decision.

Alongside obtaining advice about funding care, it is important that all legal aspects of your affairs – for example Power of Attorney (POA) and a will – are up-to-date, so that all of your future wishes about your care and finances are documented while you have full mental capacity. This is even more important if you have been diagnosed with a condition such as dementia, whereby your mental capacity may deteriorate as the condition progresses.

Quite simply, when a carer or personal assistant offers visiting support at home.

Different to live-in care where you receive ongoing support, this type of care is for those who prefer support at set regular times each week. This could be as little as a weekly housekeeping visit through to several visits a day to help with personal care, getting around the home or preparing meals, for example.

It even covers overnight support if you need some extra assistance with nightly toilet trips or taking medication. You can arrange what is called a ‘sitting service’ for the whole of the night so if there is ever a problem, someone is on hand to help.

Those who wish to stay within their own homes may be very interested in the idea of regular visits from a qualified carer. It may be that they need a little extra support after having an operation or have a long-term condition such as dementia, Parkinson’s or multiple sclerosis.

Domiciliary care, in short, is for anyone who wants to remain independent within the comfort of their own home rather than move into residential care, but may need some extra help in order for that to happen.

Defined as a range of services which are put in place to ensure that an individual can stay at home, domiciliary carers offer support in a variety of areas but always focuses on helping the person they’re supporting to follow the lifestyle and routines that they have become familiar with.

Personal care

Personal care covers a range of areas. The type of support a person needs will depend on a number of factors, but does include tasks such as showering and bathing, changing continence pads, and maintaining comfort to prevent pressure sores. Some of the other tasks include tending to hair and nails, shaving, and foot care.

Companionship and hobbies facilitation

It’s not just practical duties that domiciliary care supports with – it’s also a way of enabling people to carry on doing the activities that matter most to them, such as a particular hobby. And domiciliary carers will also get involved in these if their customer wants them to.

Housekeeping and meal preparation

There’s no place like home. However, for those needing additional care support, housekeeping tasks like polishing, cleaning the windows, or sorting out the laundry can soon build up. Domiciliary support can take care of these tasks, ensuring that the house is kept in a clean and tidy condition.

Both options offer fully qualified carers who, above all, are focused on delivering the best possible service.

However, moving into a care home can be incredibly disruptive for someone who is used to their own environment. They could lose their routine or find it difficult to interact with the other residents at the home.

Our carers will help maintain your independence at home at all times. If you some help with practical tasks, personal care, or day-to-day housekeeping, our carers will be on hand to support you.

Our domiciliary carers can help you with a range of daily errands, including:

• preparing meals
• general housekeeping – such as cleaning and doing laundry
• bathing and administering personal care
• dressing
• administering and supervising medication
• so much more

The majority of clients suffering mental illness are successfully treated as outpatients with medication or therapy delivered by psychiatrists, therapists or GPs. Response to medication and therapy varies but in uncomplicated episodes, an initial improvement is usually observed within 3-4 weeks.

Progress, however, can be slow in a significant proportion of clients with certain types of mental illness leading to significant consequences; in a smaller proportion of cases, medication or therapy will only achieve a certain level of improvement in severe symptoms or everyday function:

• 20% of clients with depression experience degrees of treatment-resistance to adequate trials of 2 or more medications; 10% suffer chronic refractory depression with non-response to multiple treatments, including augmentation & Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT), with depression lasting more than 2 years.
• In generalised anxiety disorder, only 18-35% are in full remission over a 5yr period; 30% with obsessive compulsive disorder will not respond to combinations of medication and therapy; a minority of clients with post-traumatic stress disorder remain unwell for years; social anxiety can be difficult to treat in 15% clients.

A significant proportion of clients who have suffered an episode of mental illness will continue to experience some residual consequences of severe symptoms for weeks or months after overcoming the ‘acute’ phase.

Thus, approximately 30% of clients suffering schizophrenia will experience blunted affect, conceptual disorganisation, passive or apathetic social withdrawal, emotional withdrawal, lack of judgment and insight, poor attention, somatic concern, difficulty with abstract thinking, anxiety and poor rapport.

Claimont staff will support clients during an episode of mental illness and who continue to suffer residual symptoms of mental illness. In addition to helping clients to manage their mental health, home visits help clients to address broader rehabilitation goals, pacing their recovery to reduce the risk of clients over-exerting themselves or stagnating, and aiming to restore everyday function over a period of time.

Clients who have suffered an episode of mental illness are very likely to suffer future episodes or to experience residual consequences. Some of the reasons for clients relapsing are:

• natural course of the mental illness, which manifests in multiple episodes;
• possible ‘kindling effect’ where the more relapses, the greater the risk of further episodes;
• non-compliance with medication;
• biological triggers such as misuse of substances or lack of sleep;
• social triggers such as work, relationship or family stress.

The means test is when the local council looks at your income, savings and property to calculate how much you need to contribute towards the cost of your care and support.

If you need care in order to stay in your own home, the means test won’t include the value of your property.

If you need to move permanently into a care home, the test may include the value of your property.

Certain types of income, such as money from certain disability benefits, may not be counted in the means test. All other income can be taken into account.

Make sure you get all of your benefits and entitlements. That’s because the means test will assume you are receiving all the benefits you are entitled to, even if you aren't already claiming them.

If you and someone else jointly hold capital, such as a savings account, it will usually be treated as divided equally between the two of you.

Many people worry that they will have to sell their home to pay for social care. Find out how your property will be valued and in what situations it may not have to be included in the means test.

You may think about giving away some of your savings, income or property to avoid paying likely care costs, and to give something to your relatives or charity, for example.

If the council thinks that you have done this to avoid paying care fees they may still assess you as if you still had the money or property that you have given away. This is referred to as deprivation of assets.

After the means test the local council should give you a written record of their decision of what you will have to pay and what they will pay, and how they calculated it.

How much you will have to pay will depend on:

• what type of care and support you need.
• your own personal circumstances.

Yes, but the person has to agree to have one (unless they don’t have the capacity to make or communicate that decision themselves).

If you’re a carer, you are entitled to a carer’s assessment too.

A social care professional will usually come to see you to find out how you’re managing everyday tasks. You may be offered a telephone or online assessment. If you feel this is not right for you, ask for a face-to-face assessment. They will look at:

• the emotional and social side of your life
• your skills and abilities
• your views, religious and cultural background and support network
• any physical difficulties you may experience, or any risks
• any health or housing requirements
• your needs and wishes
• what you would like to happen
• information about your needs from your carer, if you want them to be involved in your assessment.

Think about the kind of help you need. Be specific, for example:

• ‘I need someone to help me get up and dressed in the mornings’
• ‘I need help to shower regularly’
• ‘I need to be reminded to take my medication’

Local councils have their own assessment procedures, but they follow a national criteria to decide who is eligible for care and support. They will have to consider three questions in making their decision:

• Do you have care and support needs as a result of a physical or mental condition?
• Are you unable to achieve two or more desired goals or outcomes as a result of your care and support needs?
• Is there, or likely to be, a signficant impact on your wellbeing?

After the assessment, a care plan should be agreed with you and a copy given to you. This will detail what needs you have and what could help to meet those needs.

Then there will be a means test to find out how much you need to contribute towards your care and support.