Live-in carer costs?

[ElizabethVonArnim]

Does anyone have a parent who has a live-in carer? MIL lives at the other end of the country and currently SIL lives with her and takes care of her, but is really beginning to struggle and is keen to have her own life. MIL is adamant she won't go into a home and has mentioned the idea of having a live-in carer.

Does anyone have experience of this? MIL does not have dementia, but she is blind and physically frail so is vulnerable.

We also don't know what the costs would be - it's something I've only read about in novels from the 30s!

Any info on costs and the general experience of this would be really welcome. DP's family have kicked this down the road for a bit too long, really, and I don't think SIL can continue as sole carer for much longer.

Just trying to work out whether live-in care could be a realistic option or if it is just a bit of a fantasy.

There have been several threads on this in the last few days. You'd be better jumping in on one of those.

Thank you - I realised after I came on here and posted this. I only had to scroll down about five threads so I feel a bit of a wally!

No worries - I often find not all threads show up when I scroll down the list. But there are at least 2 with a good amount of detail about pros and cons and specific costs that I hope you'll find helpful.

Appreciate it, thanks - both threads are really useful, if a bit bleak.

Are you on the Cockroach Cafe thread? That's good for venting about bleakness.

I'll take a look. Ta!

It depends on what level of care she needs and if you find a cared though an agency or not.

We were extremely fortunate for DF that we tried recommeded agencies who couldn't get us anyone for atleast a month, but a
local acquaintance heard about our problems and reached out with a couple of private carer recommendations.

At the time he didn't need overnight care, or really want care as such, more company, driving, shopping and cooking. Of course she gradually won him over and did more and more.

As we didn't book through an agent, costs were significantly less per week, it was a few years ago, and he paid approx £800 a week. Bank & public holiday weeks were slightly higher.

Agencies had been quoting £1200+ per week.

She arranged her own insurance, has 2 hours off per day, no overnight duties, and whenever she wanted time off she arranged a friend to cover for around the same cost. He also paid for her food, a car and petrol, the increased council tax, and all the bills, which did go up slightly too, plus better broadband costs. And while she did tidy up and do some minor cleaning, we had a separate cleaner come in once or twice a week.