What is Live-in Care?
Live-in care is one-to-one support with round-the-clock care from a carer who lives in the home and offers support for an individual’s care needs and household tasks.
Live-in care is the preferred choice as people can remain at home and enjoy the familiar surroundings as many of the benefits of specialist care can be provided in their own homes rather than moving to a care home.
When a family member or loved one needs increased assistance and care, friends and family need to know that their chosen home care supports the needs of their loved one, from domestic tasks and companionship to medication management. Regulated, round-the-clock live-in care brings a new standard of elderly care. It allows patients to live independently, with expert care provided by carers who work diligently to provide peace of mind and a better quality of life centred around their communities, and favourite hobbies and interests.
What are Live-in Care Services?
Choosing a live-in care service is one of the most significant decisions families make emotionally and financially. Live In Care is typically cheaper than going into a care home. They have the responsibility of choosing a live-in carer to move into the family home for 24-hour care to provide assistance and support to one of the family members and to be involved in all areas of their lives.
The highly-trained carer lives within your home and supports all the specific live-in needs and requirements to keep you living independently and comfortably at home. The live-in carers deliver dedicated care and a range of live-in services, such as:
- Personal care
- Dietary needs
- Companionship and support
- Housekeeping
- Daily household tasks
At Unique Community Services, our specialist clinicians provide the highest standard of fully managed, regulated live-in care and support. These are some of the daily activities:
- Structure daily routines for our clients
- Medication management
- Make health appointments
- Promote independent living through daily activities
- Washing, cleaning, bathing, organising, preparing meals etc.
Our clinicians build deep bonds with our clients that enable them to live their lives how they want, give them peace of mind and encourage better overall health with their support.
Conditions That Require Live-in Care
Live-in care at home is a bespoke 24-hour a day service precisely tailored to different conditions. Therefore, support is specifically designed to meet the needs of day-to-day challenges. Some conditions that might require live-in care are:
- Dementia
- Alzheimer’s
- Stroke
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
- Parkinson’s
- Brain Injury
- Spinal Injury
- Palliative care
Our clinicians go the extra mile to improve the quality of life for the clients we support, including assistance with mobility, companionship, personal hygiene, household tasks, socialising, and enjoyment while live-in care.
What is a Live-in Carer?
A live-in carer is a fully trained specialist health and social care worker moving into your home to deliver support to your specific needs of live-in care. Your loved ones can maintain their routines with their assistance, and you can rest assured they are in safe hands.
The support of a live-in carer is full-time. They understand how important it is to know someone is there, even overnight—knowing that your loved one is being cared for and supported day and night gives the family peace of mind.
What is the Role of a Live-in Carer?
Live-in care carers can assist you with many daily tasks so you can continue to live in your home. They can significantly improve your quality of life. While many believe they can only help with personal care, mobility challenges, and medicine management, they are competent in far more. While the physical aspects of providing care many people only connect with are necessary, our live-in home carers may assist you in all other aspects of daily life.
The option of receiving fully regulated live-in care at home is also available for people with more complex medical conditions. A team of carers trained and qualified to meet complex needs is needed when your needs are varied. A professional carer can assist you whether you require daily insulin injections, tracheostomy management, or other needs. Some elderly people need “wake night” live-in care. This is when a person needs their carer to be up at night because they require assistance all night. Most likely, carers who work shifts throughout the week will perform these care needs.
Working Hours of Live-in Carers
The typical workday for live-in carers is 8 to 10 hours; however, they are available for 24-hour care. The 8 to 10 hours relate to the amount of time they foresee requiring to complete their most significant healthcare responsibilities. The day is organised around your loved one and their necessities on a specific day, with no rigid rules.
Live-in carers typically get a certain amount of hours off per week. This amounts to about 14 hours per week, divided between two hours off work daily. The carer might arrange care breaks during a time when the family is visiting or if the client struggles to be alone during this time.
A standard live-in care agency has two live-in carers allocated to each client due to the extended hours live-in carers are available to help your loved one. They typically rotate through their jobs. A carer could, for example, spend a month with your loved one before taking a two-week vacation. During this moment, another carer assumes control. The purpose of live-in care providers is to maintain a small, consistent staff team that know your loved one well.
Specialist Live-in Care
The care agency can offer trained live-in carers for those with dementia, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis. Live-in care for clients with these sorts of conditions is given to specialist live-in carers. Dementia care for an older person usually demands more expertise to provide effective support. The carers employed by an agency receive specialised training on how to interact with people who have dementia, engage them with old memories, and support them when they are confused or distressed. Specialist live-in carers are chosen from the leading carers and given extra training.
What Qualities Does a Live-in Carer Need?
The live-in carer position is a responsible job and requires specific values, personal qualities and qualifications. Your clients need to be confident that they have chosen the right person for regulated live-in care, as they trust you with the lives of their loved ones.
Here are some essential qualities and skills that carers should exhibit:
Personal Attributes
To be nurturing, empathetic, patient, understanding, kind, respectful, flexible, have a genuine love for people, compassionate, supportive, caring etc.
Respectfulness and Sensitivity
It’s essential to remember that the client has experienced many life situations as an individual who was once capable of standing on his own two feet before having live-in care. It is necessary to treat the client as a person with the respect and sensitivity they deserve.
Training and Qualifications
Care Quality Commission guidance states that all carers working with older adults should complete four legally mandated training courses in First Aid, Food Hygiene, Moving and Handling, and Safeguarding (essential). All professional carers offering home care services must also be enrolled in or pursuing a Diploma in Health and Social Care, according to the Care Quality Commission CQC (formerly an NVQ qualification).
Experience and Skills
They must have experience providing round-the-clock support and care for others, flexibility and availability, listening and strong communication skills, planning and organisation, to provide peace of mind, compassionate live-in care service, high standard of personal care and support.
What Does a Live-in Carer Need?
You need to prepare several things before a live-in carer lives in your home to provide you with the support you need, even though it may seem apparent. They will be able to focus their time and energy on 24-hour care for their loved one and enjoy living in their home if you arrange the home to be as comfortable as possible for them, too. The necessities you must give your live-in carer are listed below:
Bed and a private room
If they have a spare bedroom available, it might not take much work to get the room cleaned. Most live-in providers require access to standard amenities they can use with your relative.
They will require their bedroom as they move into the home. It must meet acceptable standards for heating and ventilation. The carer will feel more at home if they have room to unpack and keep their clothing and other belongings.
Although not everyone has a spare room, they should ideally have their bedroom. It can be necessary to redesign a garage or repurpose another area, such as a study or entrance area. But when making plans, keep in mind that they might need to be close to your loved one.
Access to a kitchen
Your live-in home carer will need access to a kitchen to make meals for both your family member and themselves.
Access to a bathroom
Those who provide live-in care must have access to a bathroom. This bathroom is not required to be private or en suite, but if it is shared, ensure the amenities are sufficient and adequate. Your carer will feel more at home if there is a space for them to put their toiletries in the bathroom.
WIFI access
For live-in care providers, having access to functional WiFi is necessary. This is partly because their specific live-in care duties (such as keeping track of progress or getting in touch with the care team) are carried out through WiFi, making them feel more at home. When they are not actively working, they might desire to access WiFi.
For your loved one, installing WiFi in the home can be helpful. They can enjoy the benefits of on-demand television, podcast listening, and video calls with internet access. It might be an excellent way to connect and spark conversation to find TV programmes that your loved one and their carer also like.
Why Choose Live-in Care?
Maintaining as much dignity and independence as possible while receiving live-in care properly tailored to the client’s requirements and support is one of the key advantages of living at home.
With the help of a live-in care provider, clients can remain in their homes and reside in their own comfortable environment, which is crucial for their overall well-being. You could stay at home with your loving pets, who will give you invaluable companionship and happiness. Additionally, living in your familiar surroundings and home keeps you near your friends, family, neighbours, and local events.
Benefits of Live-in Care
Your loved ones and the rest of the families benefit significantly from professional residential care and support. Consistent, 24-hour, 7 days-a-week care ensures the client’s individualised care and the security of family and friends. It fosters an atmosphere of friendship and trust between the live-in care provider and the client, making him feel like a family member.
However, it also includes a lot of other advantages that you should consider, such as social, financial, health and lifestyle benefits. Live-in care is a cost-effective full-time service that helps your loved one continue to live with a professional and fully trained clinician. Once, it was believed that live-in care was expensive, but the care cost is lower in order to help people access an affordable care package. The level of service and care support are managed by a care team that offers support for your loved one with the highest standards of live-in care.
How to Find the Right live-in Carer for You?
We at Unique Community Services deliver a 24-hour service of care and support tailored to your aspirations and needs. In order to enable clients to return home following a hospital stay or to manage a chronic health condition, we provide a fully managed range of home nursing solutions that are part of live-in care.
As your trusted care provider of bespoke support, we manage your care needs, whether in live-in care, personal care or domiciliary care. Your care needs are our priority, and we deliver a service that has an affordable plan for a care package tailored to your needs.
When you get in touch with us, you can talk to a dedicated care manager who will respond to your inquiries and provide you with the necessary information to make the right decision.
Jobs in Live-in Care
We are looking for live-in clinicians who share our company’s ethos and values and are passionate and dedicated. We are committed to maintaining CQC regulated, high standards of a client’s live-in care and the quality of the healthcare provided along your clinical path.
We value your approach to caring for people; therefore, we provide many benefits for your humane, thoughtful, and compassionate work. Your kindness and understanding will enable us to keep on with our aim of bringing happiness and peace into the lives of our clients through live-in care.
You can contact our care manager at our Bristol head office or the second office in Manchester for live-in care job opportunities.
Start your care journey now and apply to our team for a job that transforms people’s lives every day.
