Experiences of organising emergency Carers

[PictPost]

First thread over here in elderly parents, apologies if a bit jumbled.

Having a crisis with both parents, dad is currently bedbound in hospital with a poor prognosis, trying to ascertain if we can get him home with care package or if hospice is the next step.

Mum has now developed sciatica and is pretty much immobile and certainly can't take care of herself. We've been through all care options and think best scenario is to organise emergency care at home. Likely to be overnight care with a couple of visits during the day. Hoping she'll be mobile again in a few weeks. Our goal is to keep her as comfortable as possible as well as facilitate visits to dad and also is be able to support and visit dad as much as possible.

So I'm looking for experiences of organising emergency carers, anything we should look out for / common issues etc?

Am slightly struggling at the minute and want to make sure it doesn't all unravel.

What part of the country are you in, we have great care agencies where I live. Is your mum able to walk at all.

We're in Surrey. She can walk with a zimmer but in agony.

It might be worth speaking to her g.p. and asking for a community home visit from the physio and o.t. to see if they can arrange for her to have some equipment at home which might help her be comfortable, if she's only walking a few steps with a Zimmer then she's not safe to go up and down the stairs or in and out a bath on her own. Carers can work out pretty expensive especially if it's overnight, ours was about 25 pounds a hour for evenings and weekends. Would she consider going into a carehome for respite for a couple of weeks, somewhere near your dad. She would get a rest, maybe see the community therapists and it might work out cheaper, at least you'd know she was safe.

Care choices have a very good website, they have advice for all types of care and cover all areas.

Thanks for your reply. We either need to get care arranged to be in place from Tuesday/Wednesday (live in if needs be as hope will be short term) or she will have to be admitted to a rehab ward.

I'll look at the home choices website but Is it even possible to get live-in or overnight care in place in 24 hours?

A&E have said care at home or rehab ward and we're trying to make best decision. None of our homes are suitable for her current needs and with young children etc we can't move in with her.

TBH, if she needs overnight care then that takes ages to organise - even day care can take a week to arrange in my experience. My parents local authority have an emergency carers scheme but it is very flaky at the best of times

Going in for a respite stay would be by far the best option while she is so immobile, and give you peace of mind that shes getting food and isn't on the floor between visits.

Ok good reality check there thank you. Poor woman, it's a very very tough situation.

Ask your GP for a referral to your local START team, they are an emergency care service for people with h
Short term injuries/recovering from a hospital stay. They usually cover about six weeks and come in up to 4 times a day. Towards the end of the period they do an assessment to work out what further care is necessary and then help you arrange it

Hi, PictPost. I'm sorry about your dad.
Some local authorities will provide care calls at night in crisis situations (I haven't heard of any providing sleep in carers though).
Some bits of equipment may help your mum through while she's struggling, and these could potentially be offered through an urgent assessment team as previous poster mentioned. If not you could buy stuff yourself (Argos do commodes, for example).
It would be worth contacting your parents' local social services to see what they offer if you haven't already. If they can't help directly they may at least be able to give you some information about local services.
You can also search the Care Quality Commission website for care services and inspection reports.
All the best 

I’d second GP ref to hospital prevention/community rehab team. And SS to see if they can provide emergency care (even if your paying for it). It’s unlikely she’d meet the criteria for rehab bed that quickly but you might get lucky, but you might get lucky. So basically aim for a couple of different options and see which works out to be able to access care as quickly as possible. Make it clear what care family are able to provide- if it’s once a week or whatever and what the practical day to day needs are.

I'm in Surrey and we had carers for my fil. It is quite challenging to get overnight care quickly as not many agencies do it around here and there are all kinds of assessments and home checks. Ww were lucky in that we never actually needed overnight care, however we had an amazing social worker, even though he paid for his own care it was all arranged through the adult social care team. The OT provided us with loads of equipment and at one point we needed an emergency assessment and the equipment came the next day. His care started off when he was admitted to hospital, on discharge he was given 6 weeks of emergency care which he didn't pay for while they assessed him properly at home and then the regular care package was put in place.

I'm in nw Surrey btw. Am happy for you to pm me if you have any questions.

Thanks so much everyone, this is all so overwhelming. I'll start phone bashing this morning and also get back on to the GP.

She couldn't even sit on the commode last night due to the pain so I'm wondering if she should be in hospital rather than trying to keep it going at home.

I've two young kids and one with severe learning disabilities so I can't afford for home to unravel too but am already missing some gaps in her care for next few days.

Thanks again everyone

Have you co tasted BUPA. They have careers for overnight stays

Hope she is ok, the Dr needs to see her If the pain is that bad, who said it was sciatica.

I've got her back in a&e as she needs to get on top of this medically before just getting Carers in.

Fingers crossed

PictPost. I was able to organise overnight care for my Dad easily. They were able to start the same day. This was with a very good agency that I went on to use for the next two months. Unfortunately, nowhere near you.

In my experience it’s easier to get care if you self-fund rather than relying on Social Services.