care assessment Archives - Altogether Care

Choosing A Care Home – What Do You Need To Think About?

Posted on 13 January 2021 by dukadmin

A new year is often the time for taking stock and making plans. For older people it’s maybe an opportunity to think about whether they need extra help with everyday tasks or perhaps more extensive care. Depending on your needs there are plenty of options, ranging from personal care in your own home to full time nursing care.

The starting point is usually a care needs assessment carried out by your local council. The assessment is to identify and document your needs. It isn’t there to tell you what to do, it’s to help you choose the type of care that suits you best.

It might be that you can continue living in your own home with a few modifications, perhaps supported by a care at home service. For some, residential care will be the best option. Here too, there are choices.

The most suitable care home will depend partly on the type of care you need. This could be personal care such as help with washing and dressing, through to round the clock registered nursing or specialist care. Most importantly, the care home you choose should be somewhere that you will feel at home and well cared for.

How to Choose a Care Home

Choosing a care home is a big step. It’s important to do your research to be as sure as possible that you’re making the best choice. Points to consider include:

Funding support. You may be eligible for some financial support, depending on your circumstances. Most people will need to pay for some or all of their care so financial planning is important.
Recommendations and online reviews. It’s helpful to see what families of care home residents say about the home.
Your own impressions. Does it feel like somewhere you’d be happy to live?
The type of care you need.

All Altogether Care homes provide nursing care to meet most people’s needs. Sherborne House also has specialist nursing care for dementia, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, stroke victims and behavioural difficulties arising from a loss of mental awareness. Each home is friendly, welcoming and caring and makes it a priority for you to maintain as much independence as possible.

Find out more about our homes.

Alternatively, call 01305 300 161 or email contact@altogethercare.co.uk for more information.

How Much Will It Cost to Have the Care At Home Service You Need?

Posted on 14 October 2020 by dukadmin

The fact that you need some help with day-to-day tasks doesn’t mean that it’s time to move to residential care or give up your home and independent way of life. A care at home service often offers the best of both worlds.

Help is available during pre-arranged home visits at times you choose. Life can be made more manageable while you continue to enjoy the familiarity and security of your own surroundings. You can opt for a care service that helps meet a wide range of needs, from picking up prescriptions, shopping and preparing meals, through to help with personal hygiene or nursing care and medication.

What Care Do You Need?

Everyone is different and so are their care needs, which is why the first step is usually to arrange a care needs assessment with your local council. It might be that you will only need care for a limited period of time, such as recovering from illness or a hospital visit. Or it may be that you need something longer-term that will make day-to-day life more manageable.

Depending on your income and assets, it’s likely that you will have to pay for some or all of your care. The question of how much the care will cost then becomes very important. The care at home packages provided by Altogether Care are based on individual needs and are highly flexible. The costs are based on each client’s specific care package and are explained and discussed with each individual in advance.

To make it easier to understand how much your care is likely to cost, we’ve created a care cost calculator. This is an easy to use online tool that takes you step-by-step through your options looking at the types of care you want to receive. At the end of the process you will receive an accurate estimate of the cost of your care at home package. This will help you make better-informed decisions when it comes to planning your care.

Try the Care Cost Calculator

For more information, contact us on 01305 300 161.

What to consider before moving into a care home?

Posted on 18 July 2016 by dukadmin

If you think the time has come to move into a care home, choosing the right one is an important and often difficult decision.

But before making that choice, there are often other questions and considerations to take into account. And one of the most common, is whether to get any financial help?

Local authority support

Contrary to what many believe, care homes and in fact, all social care services – aren’t free. That said you may qualify for support from your local authority.

To find out, you first need to apply for a ‘care assessment’, to confirm the level of support your local authority believes you need. If you’re assessed as needing a care home place, you’ll then be means tested to find out if you can afford to pay or contribute towards the cost of your stay.

Means test

The means test looks at your regular income (pensions, benefits or earnings) and other capital (savings and investments, land and property and business assets).

As it stands, if you have capital of over £23,250, you have to pay the full cost of your care home stay. However, if you own your own home and your spouse still lives there, the property isn’t taken into account in the means test. If your capital is between £14,250 and £23,250, you’ll be expected to contribute some of the costs but if it’s below, you qualify for the maximum level of support.

Care home figures

Around 240,000 care home or nursing home residents qualify for financial help.

That’s out of a total of 426,000 elderly and disabled people in residential and nursing care according to a recent market survey by Laing and Buisson. Around 405,000 of them are aged 65 or over, although only 16% of people aged 85 or over in the UK live in care homes.

Interestingly, even though the number of people aged 65 rose 11% between 2001 and 2011, the care home resident population has increased by just 0.3% in that time. One explanation is the general improvement in people’s health as they age which therefore means they do not need to go into a care home as quickly or for as long compared to earlier years.

Choosing the right home

When it comes to making the decision about which home to choose the importance lies with the research that is done beforehand. A mixture of recommendations, reputation, the internet and actually visiting the home is likely to be used. But with 13685 care homes in England as reported by the CQC, it can be difficult knowing where to start.

It’s important to get the perfect balance between professional care and a personal approach. So that you feel at ease with your surroundings & the care workers and that you are getting the care that you need.

This is why Altogether Care are committed to providing the perfect fit care solution to meet your personal needs. Believing that care should always be person-centric, shaped around what is best for you and what you prefer.

If you or a loved one are considering what the best form of care may be for the future, contact Altogether Care who can discuss the range of care solutions available which can be tailored to your needs and requirements. Whether that is care at home, respite, specialist dementia or care homes – our commitment to your care is clear with every option.

To find out more visit the website or contact us directly on 01305 300 161.