The number of enquiries I have received over the last few weeks from families looking for help in sourcing good care for older loved ones has hugely increased.
Why?
Because as the country starts to open up many people who had been furloughed or working from home are now having to plan for either a return to work on-site full time or a hybrid form splitting their working time between the office and home.
Quite a few people in this situation have been providing a considerable number of hours per week caring for vulnerable older loved ones.
This was possible in the above situations and was also driven by a need for families to want to provide more protection to their older more vulnerable family members. Keeping them at home rather than going into residential care or reducing the number of people going into their homes to prevent the risk of spreading and catching COVID 19.
But……
The difficulty is that many residential and care at home providers are very short of staff due to several factors.
Most of the providers I speak to are struggling to recruit good carers to accommodate the growing demand for care. The providers who are rated Good or Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) must then carry out all the necessary checks, undertake training and make sure they can match the needs of the client with the appropriate care staff. Add into this the “pingdemic” and the fact that many carers are younger with children at school (although now we are into the school summer holiday time which brings other challenges) and you have a perfect storm.
What to do?
Well, if you are in this position, I would strongly recommend that you start planning as early as possible. Do some research; Be sure you know what your loved one’s needs are; Start a longlist; Check out the CQC rating and any “Friends & Family” sites; Call them and ask about costs, availability, training; Make a shortlist; Start interviewing
OR
Contact Sunrise Care Advisers and ask us to help you.
Tel: 01164 300 230 E: enquiries@sunrisecareadvisers.co.uk
