adult social care Archives - Altogether Care

What Would Make Life Easier For Your Elderly Relatives?

Posted on 26 March 202427 March 2024 by Access Performance

Spring is a time of year when many older people and their families consider whether some extra help – or perhaps new technology – could make life easier and leave more time and energy for simply enjoying life. As families plan for the years school holidays ahead it can often become clearer that an elderly relative has more significant care needs that aren’t being met and there’s a scramble on how to fill that gap.

More Options Than You Might Think

People new to the care system are often surprised by the flexibility and choices available to them. Preconceived ideas about what receiving care means dissolve once they look at the options. Care can mean anything from a few hours a week to help with cleaning or cooking right up to live-in or residential care.

The starting point is always: ‘what would make life better?’ That’s a large part of how we see ourselves. Delivering elderly care in all its forms is what Altogether Care does. Why we do it is to help people enjoy the most active and fulfilling lives possible in their later years.

How Technology Can Help

The pandemic made us all more accustomed to doing things remotely. This trend has opened more options for elderly care. Remote GP consultations are now common, which can be more convenient if mobility is an issue, but there are other technologies and care models which are also contributing to better care.

Altogether Care is an advocate of technologies that can contribute to smarter home care. In partnership with the charity AbilityNet, friendly tech volunteers provide free IT support to older people and disabled people of any age, anywhere in the UK. We recently ran an AbilityNet drop in hub at our Weymouth Care Home.

There is also remote digital care technologies that are easy to install such as Ethel, a smart care hub. This works through a simple-to-operate tablet that includes medication reminders, video calling, remote ‘check-in,’ call-me requests and more. A really valuable feature is vital signs monitoring to provide early alerts of potential issues. Ethel can also be connected to motion, power and contact sensors placed around the home. Altogether Care are piloting the use of Ethel in partnership with Dorset Council for a limited number of clients.

There is no replacement for people, but these technologies and efficiencies will all contribute to improving and maintaining your loved ones care at home.

Starting The Conversation

For families, the hardest part is usually starting the conversation. Asking what would help your relative get more enjoyment from life might be a better starting point than suggesting they need to be cared for.

It’s also helpful to know what options are available. So take some time to look at our website to explore care at home, assisted living, holiday and day care, residential and nursing care options.

To learn more about how Ethel delivers greater peace of mind for elderly relatives needing care support at home, please visit www.ethelcare.co.uk, or for help with making technology accessible for your loved ones, AbilityNet can assist with knowledge about any device.

If you have any questions we’d be delighted to help. Give Altogether Care a call, visit our website, or email contact@altogethercare.co.uk.

Is now the Right Time to Consider Respite Care for Your Loved One?

Posted on 5 August 20225 September 2022 by Access Performance

Following the distressing and turbulent times that Covid-19 brought to the UK, with its associated lockdowns and the trauma that it brought with it, this country now seems to be returning to something approaching normality.

Care homes are operating more or less normally, and the options for care for your loved ones have increased exponentially. Is now the right time to consider residential care for your older relatives?

Is a care home the best option?

Your relative might be having increasing difficulty with everyday tasks like washing, cooking or dressing themselves and taking their medication. They might be worried about falling, with no one around to help them. And they can get increasingly stressed by the little things in life.

Moving into a care home can give the elderly a new approach to life – they can meet new people with shared life experiences, and they can make new friends. Because there are highly-trained staff on hand at all times, the worries about being on their own melt away. They are fed and washed and entertained and properly looked after.

Depending on the level of care needed, their every need will be taken into account, and if they need extra nursing or dementia care, that can be arranged.

Respite care

It may be that it’s too soon for you to start thinking about full-time residential care. In which case, respite care might be a more suitable option.

Respite care can be for a short time, such as only a few hours every week, or can be overnight, or a weekend.

Even though many people take a great deal of pleasure in providing care to their loved ones so that they can remain at home, the financial, physical and emotional consequences can be overwhelming without some support, such as respite.

To be most effective, you should consider respite services much earlier than you might think you will need them. Respite is best if you use it before you become exhausted, and isolated by your responsibilities.

Altogether Care is committed to providing your loved ones with the highest possible standards of care, and is vigilant about the possible return of variants of the Covid-19 virus, se we take every possible precaution to keep residents and staff as safe as possible.

If you’d like to explore care options available for yourself or an elderly relative, give Altogether Care a call, visit our website, or email contact@altogethercare.co.uk.

Weymouth Care Home Residents and Staff Sea Life Centre Sensory Day

Posted on 21 July 202222 July 2022 by Access Performance

Resident’s and Staff at our Weymouth Care Home recently went out to the Weymouth Sea life Centre for their Sensory Day.

They loved seeing all the variety of sea creatures, such as the seals and being in the underwater tunnel where they could see sharks, sting rays, turtles and more. They thoroughly enjoyed choosing their own gifts from the gift shop. The residents and staff cannot wait to do this again soon.

The purpose of our Sea Life sensory day was so that everyone could experience not only a different environment, but different senses such as: sounds (running water, noises from penguins, music), smells (the penguin enclosure, the smell of the food that was there), sight (different sea creatures, bubbles, lights).

Each week our sensory days look at different things which affect different senses. Previous sensory days focusing on touch at Weymouth Care Home have included orbeeze and slime. For sound we have used instruments, and for sight we have used sensory lights. We also use our magic table if they are doing a bubble pop game, we also have our bubble machine on and music in the background.

Sensory days are incredibly important for those who need activities adapted, or who struggle to partake in group activities as it helps keep their brains stimulated, it gives them new opportunities to experience their senses.

We have found that by doing sensory days it has had a positive impact on all residents who have taken part, and it’s nice doing activities that all abilities can partake in.

A Career With a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Posted on 8 July 20228 July 2022 by Access Performance

The pandemic changed the way a lot of people work, perhaps permanently. Many found working from home preferable to commuting to and from a fixed place of work.

But was it just the change of setting that made people happier in their work? Research by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) suggests that some aspects of homeworking are actually less attractive. In particular, people found it harder to collaborate with colleagues. And there’s no doubt that some people miss the social aspects of the workplace.

The biggest positive according to the ONS data was unquestionably an improved work-life balance. Being home based gave people opportunities to take or collect kids from school and generally enjoy more family time, rather than arrive home late each day after a tiring commute.

Will Work From Home Last?

The future of home working is unclear. Some organisations are already calling staff back into the office full or part time. And in other occupations such as retail there’s no option other than to be present in the workplace for a fixed number of hours.

When people say they’re looking for jobs that allow them to work from home is it that they really want to turn part of their home into a place of work? Or is it just that they want to balance work and life a little more in their favour?

Where Else Can You Find Work-Life Balance?

If the most important goal is to have a better work-life balance there are alternatives. A new job that offers flexibility to blend work and family life more harmoniously might be all you need.

In which case the care sector is an excellent place to start looking. People don’t just need care within normal office hours. So working for Altogether Care usually allows people to choose work patterns that fit best with their home life and commitments. This can take a lot of stress and pressure out of everyday life as it’s easier to fit your work around the things you need and want to do.

If you’d like to find out more about how working in the care sector can improve your work-life balance, contact Altogether Care on 01305 230488 or email careers@altogethercare.co.uk, or check out our current vacancies.

The Modern Way to Deliver Care at Home

Posted on 4 March 2019 by dukadmin

Mobile technology has revolutionised so many aspects of our work and lives. Our home care teams make many visits each day to multiple locations, so mobile technology is the logical way to support the work they do.

The Mobile Care Worker App we recently introduced supports our care teams at all points of service delivery. It means we can forget about completing paper forms and records during visits and focus more time on our care users.

The app guides our staff to each appointment using maps and directions. If there is anything they need to know to gain access, the app will tell them this also.

Once at the appointment, our staff check in automatically using their mobile phone. They can see an up-to-date checklist of the care tasks to be carried out and any other information about the service user that might be relevant. They can also be prompted to check whether medication has been taken and record any details that might help with adapting to the care plan to meet changing care needs.

More Efficient

Mobile Care Worker also helps us organise the care we provide more efficiently. Data is captured instantly from each visit due to staff being able to input information through the app rather than in the office. This means we spend less time entering data from paper forms and more time designing a better service to meet our customers’ needs.

We also spend less time designing visit rosters and can see instantly where all our mobile staff are. If it looks like they might be late for an appointment, we can let people know to reassure them that they haven’t been forgotten. Simpler rostering also makes it easier for us to ensure that people see the same care worker at every visit.

Mobile Care Worker provides another way to involve relatives in the care of their loved one, which can be very welcome if they don’t live locally. They can be given secure access to the system and be reassured that visits have taken place when scheduled. They can also be part of the discussion around designing the most appropriate care programme.

Technology will never take the place of personal interactions in the care delivery, but it can take care of all the things that help those interactions to be more effective.

If you or an elderly relative are starting to find basic household tasks a bit challenging, a care at home service might be just what’s needed to brighten life up. Contact us today on 01305 300161 to find out more or click here.

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