Where do you get ad-hoc care/support from?

[r3dh3d]

We have a token amount of Domiciliary care which needs to be booked months in advance. Plus a live-in carer who works part time and also needs to know well in advance when she will be working for logistical reasons of her own.

So, when (as he has today) DH shoots off to Shanghai for 2 weeks at short notice, we're buggered. In an ideal world there would be someone I could call and ask to help out for a few hours eg at the weekend so we might actually leave the house at some point. But it's not like booking a babysitter, is it? Ideally I'd like to have a couple of people who we knew and we could phone up on the off chance they would like a few hours' work. If they can make it, great, if not never mind. But how do you find someone like that?

Anyone else deal with this situation better than me?

My ABA tutors will also do babysitting sometimes, or my 80 year old dad has amazingly found a way of looking after DS which works for both of them. Where are you r3?

Direct payments. I have a bunch of students that I use in this way (I advertised at our local university- got loads of replies).

On the whole they've been mature and reliable btw....

Care agencies can do one off bookings. Get a list off SS.

Thanks folks.

In no particular order:

What are "care agencies"? You mean like nursing temp agencies? Would we get the same person each time? - DD1 is a bit involved to look after and there is no way you could leave her alone with someone who didn't know her, it's hard enough doing handover at the hospice and they see her once a fortnight.

Does anyone use nursing students? I think we have some of those locally and I guess that would be a good place to start looking. I think our local uni tends to run to music students and though I don't have anything against music students it doesn't sound to me like a particularly rich source of victims candidates!

AMAM, we're in Surrey.

nursing students would be a good place to start as they may well want the experience. I go for psychology students as working with severe autism looks good on their CV!

Funny you should ask that, I've just had a letter from Brighton and Hove City Council about a new service for carers. It's a pilot scheme at the moment but it's a back-up scheme to provide short-term, home-based emergency cover. I haven't filled mine out yet but you put a plan in place and register it and they sort everything out for you if anything unforseen happens. If no-one listed in your plan is available they already have key information such as what medication your child has, who your GP is, special dietary requirements, what they need help with etc so they can keep them safe until you can sort something out yourself.
It sounds very good in theory so I wonder if it is successful, if other councils will follow suit. It might be worth some of you asking your local councils if they would consider such a scheme?

The only other suggestion I have is, if your child goes on school transport, ask the escort if he/she is interested. One of ours was happy to babysit occasionally which was ideal as ds already knew her (and she knew him!), and we were happy she had already been checked and approved by the transport service.

I am in Surrey too so if you are nearer the London end, it's possible one of my tutors could babysit - they are used to ASD and my very hyper son, but are also very trainable and trustworthy! Let me know if of interest