These days, there are multiple different home care options available to help you remain independent. But how do you know whether your current care solution is right for you? Do you need a health check for your home care?
Whether you use a care agency, some local help from the neighbourhood, respite care at a care home or a Hub Care Support Personal Assistant, these checks will help ensure you are getting the care solution that works best for you.
Relationships
Questions to ask yourself:
- Do you feel comfortable and relaxed around everyone who provides care for you?
- Do you feel like you have enough time with your carers?
- Have you built up long-term trust with your carers?
Relationships are at the core of great care, but unfortunately they aren’t always prioritised. Have you answered ‘no’ to any of these questions? It might be worth thinking about whether your current care solution is right for you.
Both care homes and agencies are often short-staffed, which inevitably means that continuity and relationships suffer. Agency care especially can mean a different person attending every day. Most carers leaving the industry cite the lack time to spend with their clients as their main reason for leaving.
On the other hand, at Hub Care Support, you get to choose exactly who is providing your care. We aim to introduce you to several potential Personal Assistants. You can meet them and choose the one that best fits your needs. Plus we have a one-hour minimum visit time so you can develop genuine, long-term relationships.
Training
Questions to ask yourself:
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Do I know what training my carers have completed?
- Is their training up-to-date so they can offer me the best possible support, safely?
Carers have a duty of care to have the most up-to-date training to support you most effectively. But it’s not always the case. Neither agency carers working across multiple different sites, nor local help may have completed mandatory training.
But it’s really important that caregivers complete CQC (Care Quality Commission) or QCAS (Quality Care Approval Scheme) approved training every year. This is because best practice changes over time, and you need to know you’re in safe hands. That’s why Hub Care Support only partners with QCAS approved Personal Assistants. QCAS ensures that their training, and references, are reviewed and updated annually.
Choice & control
Questions to ask yourself:
- Do I feel like I’m in control of my care?
- Does my care fit in with my schedule, or am I fitting my life around my care?
- Do I feel like I have choices when it comes to the little things, like when and what I eat for meals?
- Do I feel in control of who enters my home?
Choice and control are the keystones of modern care, but are often hard to implement. For example, although care homes are much better these days at serving meals at times that suit their clients, agency staff can often be pressed for time and unable to meet your requirements at the times you prefer, even if the agency provides a time window of a couple of hours.
If you don’t feel like you have control over your care and the things that are important to you, it might be time to change things up.
With Hub Care Support, you are in control. You have total freedom to agree tasks and schedules that suit you. And it’s completely fine (and expected!) to change those tasks and/or schedules as your needs change.
Accountability & professionalism
Questions to ask yourself:
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- Can I be certain that my care provider is insured?
- Am I confident that my carers have passed a DBS-check?
- Do I feel like my care provider is accountable for their actions?
It’s really important that we feel safe and confident that we are receiving high quality care. If you’re worried about the above questions, do talk to your care provider.
Care homes and agencies are regulated by the CQC, and Hub Care Support by the Quality Care Approval Scheme (QCAS). These organisations require that all carers are insured and have passed a DBS check. But only QCAS will actually check this annually for individual carers. QCAS also insist on a current (‘live’) conviction-free DBS. Both CQC and QCAS will advise you in cases where standards of care fall short, and may even withdraw their approval in extreme cases.
While there may be advantages to employing a local neighbourhood carer, they are unlikely to have the same level of oversight and accountability.
So, how does your home care measure up in this health check?
So how does your home care measure up in this health check?
Your needs can and will change over time. So it’s important to make sure that your home care is still right for you.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Hub Care Support’s services, please give us a call on 01392 982832 or click here to find out more.
You may be interested in our posts about the cost of care in Devon. Our pages on Care Services and Support for Quality of Life for some more ideas about how a Hub PA can help you or your loved one.
For further reading, you might also be interested in blogs aimed at helping with loneliness, mobility issues, memory issues or eating enough.
Hub Care Support in Devon makes finding consistent, quality care simple. We introduce you to fully-trained, QCAS approved independent Personal Support Assistants. You choose who you want to provide your support, what support you need and when.
