How to get a carer?

[Jinglejinglejingle7]

My dad (85) has Alzheimer's , he's on Memantine. Only diagnosed in November. My mum is 82 and in good health so it largely falls to her to look after him. He has other health complications- tia 18 months ago, stress dracture in leg. I live 350miles away i do most of the online bits and go up about every 6 weeks. My brother, sis in law & my cousin who's like their other daughter are near by & visit a few times a week & help out.
Mum has voiced that she's struggling a bit, feels the responsibility of trying to organise his pills (he wants to do it but does get confused) shes thinking they may need some help to come in each day. Not sure specifically to do what but I said I'd start looking into it. They dont get benefits. No idea if entitled to anything or if we pay privately or where to start!

This is as I understand it:

If he has savings / assets (incl. the house) over £23,250, he won't get any financial help but there is nothing to stop them organising care privately. An agency where I am costs around £25 per hour.

If savings are below £23,250 but over about £14k, he may he some help with costs from local authority, if a "Care Needs Assessment" proves that he would struggle to look after himself without support (your mum has no obligation to provide any support at all). This type of assessment is what you need to request from the Social Care team at your Local Authority.

Under c.£14k of assets, they are disregarded, but he is income will still be looked at to see if the can afford to make a contribution.

if the LA do make a contribution towards care costs, the can either arrange the care themselves or give your parents a Direct Payment so they can choose & book their own carers and use the money to pay for it.

This is for England; I don't know if it's different for other nations.

@Tallypoo193 thanks so much they have a house and savings over £23000 so private it is!

@Tallypoo193 thanks so much they have a house and savings over £23000 so private it is!

If he has over £23k in savings then the easiest/quickest thing to do would be to pay privately. Ask their friends etc for recommendations of local carers or get a list of providers from Adult Social Care or the local Age UK.

If he doesn't have a huge amount in savings then ring adult social care and ask for a Care Act Assessment. Social care will then visit, assess and recommend a package of support.

Everyone is entitled to an assessment even private funders but there can be long waiting lists for them so if you can 'go private' then it speeds everything up and makes the assessment an optional extra.

Make sure your mum has a carers assessment for herself no matter what - this identifies a contingency plan if she is suddenly unavailable to care for your dad and should support her in her caring role.

Your dad may be able to claim Attendance Allowance which is around £70 per week and not means tested. This is to pay for extra help and support to enable him to live safely.

Also if your dad has a dementia diagnosis he may be able to get "disregarded" for council tax. Look on web for information about council tax discounts in their Local Authority. Assuming it's just the two of them in the house, your mum would then be the only person eligible to pay council tax and therefore entitled to a 25% single person discount.

The house is disregarded whilst one or both of them are still living in it and he has to have over £23k in his share of any savings.

Split any savings they have jointly in half mentally. If it's still over £23k then go private - you can still ask for an assessment though. It's free and useful if it's ever needed in an emergency.

Mum currently has 2 x carers in 3 times a day. My parents have savings so have to self fund the care but her pension and attendance allowance goes towards it.

We did ask for a social services assessment but as soon as they discovered my parents have over £23,250 they were not interested so I asked for recommendations for private carers on our local FB group and the same care company came up over and again so we went for them and have been very pleased.

His local pharmacy might be willing to organise a dosette box for medication; it’s less common than it used to be, at the same time as it’s getting harder (but not always impossible) to get medication-only carers.

I'm currently at the start of this process too and the above advice matches the information I've been given. My Dad's pharmacy sort all his meds out into day of the week box.

You could ask Age Concern or Social Services.

So difficult with aging parents.