Using home care

Read our story about what it can be like to use a home care service.

People have very different experiences of using care services. Some are good and some are bad.

This story is about a home care service that needs to improve. CSCI works with services like this to help them get better.

Joan is 88 and lives in a ground floor flat in Weybridge. She talks here about her experiences of what it’s like to receive care at home.

“I’m lucky because I live in a block of flats for older people.

“It’s not exactly what you would call sheltered housing.

“But there is a largish lounge on the ground floor. We all meet there quite often to have a chat and a nice cup of tea.

“So I feel that I have the best of both worlds; the independence of my own flat as well as a social life along the corridor, whenever I want it.

“On top of that, I have care workers come in to me about three or four times a day – although you can never be exactly sure when they’re going to turn up.

“But they’re always very friendly and helpful. Quite a few are Estonian, and they speak very good English.”

Deciding to have care at home

Joan, who has always been the independent sort, started having care only a few years ago:

“I’d always managed to look after myself. But then I got ill.

“After that, my son, my doctor and a few others - I think they were from the council - had a conference about me.

“I didn’t want to move into a home, as I’m happy here in my flat, overlooking the garden.

“I’ve been here for some years now, and I have a few good friends in the other flats.

“So that’s when it was decided that I should have care at home.

The daily routine

“Now I have someone to come and help me to get up, washed and dressed in the morning, and also to give me my first lot of medicine.

“I have about ten pills to take in the morning, and various others throughout the day.

“I’m not sure what they’re all for, but I fully trust my care workers to know that they’re doing.

“For lunch, I usually have something frozen just popped into the microwave.

“And then another care worker will come after lunch to give me some more pills.

“Then the last care worker of the day gets me ready for bed, although sometimes I prefer to do that myself, as they come quite early, about seven-thirty.”

Joan’s care agency is also quite flexible.

“If a friend comes to take me out shopping, or to lunch, I can ring up to let the agency know.

“They’ll adjust the times that the care workers come. They’re very good like that.”

She also says that her care workers are usually quite reliable, although she has been let down in the past.

“One morning, nobody came,” she says. “So after a while, I got fed up waiting and managed to get myself out of bed and slowly sorted myself out.

“Later, I found out that my usual morning care worker was sick and there hadn’t been time to get anyone else.

“But it was OK, these things happen - and it hasn’t happened since.”

It’s not for everybody

Joan says that her care workers are usually very helpful.

“One of them takes my washing to the laundry room and put it in the washing machine and the tumble drier.

“After it’s dry, she irons it for me, and then puts it all away. “

But Joan doesn’t believe that having care at home would suit everybody.

“I’ve always been very independent-minded,” she says. “But others may prefer to be in a care home.

“Having care at home is not for everybody, but it suits me.

“And if I feel a bit lonely, I can just get out my trolley and push it along the corridor to the lounge.

“There’s always sure to be some good company there!”