To think an adult nanny service would be a great idea

[GoldfishParade]

Hear me out. When I was suffering epic panic attacks and moving into my own flat after a nervous breakdown, I would have loved to be able to call and hire out someone as a kind of "babysitter" in the evenings when my panic attacks would get the worst. You cant always ask friends to stay over, they have shit they need to be getting on with. Just someone who would have watched telly or read or whatever whilst I went to sleep

On the relationships board i read so many horrible stories of women who are terrified but need to leave their partners. I just think how great would it be if they could call this service and someone could come around and basically hand hold, help them back a bag, help them get on a bus or whatever.

I'm sure there are loads of other areas where this kind of thing would be really useful (feel free to add if you have ideas).

Do you see where I'm coming from? I just think it would be great and there would be so many uses!

Imagine you're single and really ill. You could hire them to come around, make you some soup, bring you some tea and stuff.

This is partly where friends and family come in, but there are lots of reasons why you might not want to impose on their time. Embarrassment, not wanting to impose, moved to a new area, etc.

The Lady magazine is a good place to start.

Yes, I imagine anybody could approach a care agency. DD had carers, funded by social services. I rang and asked them how much they would charge for a private booking and they told me £20 per hour, when at the time the care workers were being paid £10 per hour.

I would have thought the cost of hiring people to sit with you regularly at night would be phenomenal?

If you have mental health problems like depression, and cannot maintain say adequate nutrition and a habitable environment (you have to be unable to achieve 2 outcomes out of about 8, but those strike me as most likely), then you can ask Social Services for an assessment for social care and support under the Care Act 2014. If you cannot achieve two or more outcomes, then they should produce a care plan, showing what support they will provide to enable you to - say a care worker to come round 3 times a day to prepare a meal.

I agree it's a "branding issue" isn't it. Care workers and support workers sound like the sort of thing that people who are coping do not need. But sometimes it is difficult to cope. I have ASD and I am quite functional a lot of the time but sometimes I do actually need "support" - fortunately I have a lovely DH who helps me when I get stuck on something but I can get into a spiral of panic when there is something that I am perceiving as too scary to deal with (often when I have to tackle some kind of bureaucratic process) and sometimes it takes me a few weeks to be able to tell him that there is something I am too anxious to tell him about. A professional support worker would be very helpful but it does feel like a massive step to actually hire one.

Maybe a low-key rebranding of the support worker role similar to what "Hire a Hubby" does for the handyman trade. A website where you can log that you have an issue that needs some extra help, and the website will link you up with people who might well be officially "support workers" but with the interstitial "branding" make it feel like less of an admission of uselessness to need it.

[quote Sarahpaula]@GarlicSoup that must have been nice to have a caring mum. My mother always uses me as a servant ,to do things for her.[/quote]
@Sarahpaula I was very fortunate.
I am very sorry that your relationship with your Mother isn’t so easy, and hope that it improves for you.

You can call up any care agency and pay directly without going through social services. This is helpful if you need short term help like after an operation.

I've also come across this in a more informal way. A relative of mine pays someone she knows on an ad hoc basis- she will do shopping for her, help her fill out forms, help her look things up on the internet. I've come across this kind of arrangement a few times. I also know someone who is a kind of super cleaner- she'll clean up your home, declutter and generally sort out your life.

I do think there's scope for more formal businesses to set up to provide this as a separate service to care work, as it is different.

It would get used by people looking for sex.

There is a 'big sister' service like this in Japan. I suppose there are some befriending charities in the UK that come close. But think of the nightmare this would cause in relation to boundaries and people taking advantage of the vulnerability of others! If done right, it would be a great idea.

Crystal87 maybe but services like this have existed for 100s of years. As people have said already it was commonly known as a 'companion'. In some homes (Downton Abbey style) someone's 'lady's maid' was
sometimes pretty much a paid companion too.

@Haffdonga my SIL gets £27 per hour. She is private though, doesn't go through an agency. She basically has sleepovers at people's houses, then leaves in the morning and does the school run.

We used agencies when my mother needed help. The agencies charged a fee, and then we paid the carer separately so that we knew exactly what they were paid.

The people were responsible for their own tax, NI etc.

FYI I've found a service that matches people leaving hospital to stay somewhere with food & a bit of support. The one I found is £135 per night
For people who don't wish to go home immediately
Not a hotel or airb&b

I guess this is what convalescent placements used to provide in the past

Chrunchy007 that sounds awesome do you have a link or something I could google please?

Carerooms.com

And you could probably find something similar