All of our carers are always welcome to pop into any of our Care at Home offices for a refuel.
Take a break from a busy day at work and help yourself to complimentary refreshments in any of our branches.
We always have a range of hot and cold drinks and snacks available for you to enjoy!
Here are a few of our carers enjoying refreshments at our Wareham branch.
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.
Last Christmas Altogether Care teamed up with Wiltshire Farm Foods to spread some Christmas cheer. Over 100 Christmas dinners generously donated by Wiltshire Farm Foods were hand-delivered by our Care at Home carers on Christmas Day to elderly and vulnerable people across Dorset and South Somerset.
Our carers also spent a little time with each person to enjoy a mince pie and pull a cracker.
67-year-old Kathleen, who lives in Weymouth said: “It is a nice thing because I can’t do it myself anymore and I used to get my food from Wiltshire Farm Foods as well.”
Becky Lloyd-Jones, from Wiltshire Farm Foods, added: “I think it’s a fantastic idea for the people who are alone this time of year.”
Dawn McGill, from Care at Home, said: “Christmas can be a lonely time for many older people and not everyone can spend Christmas with family. We visit our clients all year round to support them with a variety of daily tasks and wanted to extend that visit to include Christmas Day.”
We would like to extend our thanks to Wiltshire Farm Foods for their generous donations. You have helped to make a real difference to those in our local communities.
A lot of people still have an inaccurate picture of what care at home and supported living mean for many elderly people. While some elderly care does involve nursing support for complex health needs, in many cases help is needed for everyday tasks that people find difficult.
Some people choose care at home simply to have more time to do what they want rather than chores such as cleaning and shopping. They find that care at home leaves more time for doing what they want to do and takes away the worry of doing chores they find laborious or difficult.
Care at Home or supported living can also help people get out of the home more regularly, with assisted shopping trips or help to travel to and from social activities.
Companionship and Elderly Care
Another major benefit of supported living care is companionship. One reason many choose care at home, apart from keeping the familiarity of their own surroundings, is the flexibility. It can be easier for relatives and friends to fit visits around their lives without having fixed times or routines. At times, such as family holidays, when family visits aren’t possible there’s the reassurance that there will be a friendly and familiar face each day.
Family visits can also be richer when the basic chores have been taken care of and there’s more time to sit and talk. And for people without family living nearby, regular visits from their home care team can be a particularly welcome way to break up the day.
In many cases it may be more accurate to talk about elderly support rather than elderly care. The need isn’t for medical care but for a little help with some basic household tasks to make life easier and more enjoyable.
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.
The need to choose a care home normally follows a care needs assessment carried out by your local social services department or a discharge from hospital. In either case, you will have an assessment of your needs that will be used to create a care plan.
The Age UK website has plenty of useful information about how care assessments work and the support you are entitled to.
Following the assessment, there will be a means test to determine how much you will have to contribute to the cost of your care. If you are planning to move permanently into assisted living the means test will include the value of your property, but not if you will be receiving care at home.
If it is decided that residential care is the most appropriate option, the local authority will give you a list of local care homes. This may not be a complete list, particularly if the local authority is funding all or most of your care. It is usually a good idea to carry out some additional research yourself.
The internet is a good source of information and a simple search on Google will give you an extensive list of local care homes. You will also find online reviews to help you narrow your choice. Other things to consider are whether a home is convenient for friends and family to visit and how easily you will be able to access leisure facilities, a place of worship or whatever else is important in your life.
Paying for Care
If you have assets (normally savings and property) of more than £23,250 you will be expected to pay the full cost of residential care. The value of your property may not be included if you live with a partner, child, or a relative who is disabled or over the age of 60. This process can get quite complicated so getting help from a friend, family member or carer can be helpful.
When choosing a care home or care at home provider it can be helpful to look beyond your immediate care needs. If it’s likely that care needs will become more extensive over time, will you be able to get the extra help you need without having to find a new provider?
If you are in hospital, any care needs should be assessed before you are discharged and a suitable care plan should be put in place. Sometimes this may be a question of temporary or reablement support while you fully recover from your treatment. Again, this can be either care at home or assisted living. This care will normally be free of charge for up to six weeks.
We have published a number of easy to follow guides covering many aspects of arranging and funding your care. Subjects include funding your care, direct payments, knowing your rights and more about your care options. We would also be delighted to show you around any of our care homes, so you can see for yourself what supported living in a caring environment looks like. Contact us today on 01305 300 161 to arrange a visit.
Five carers from Care at Home in Beaminster received awards for their individual contributions to care in their community on the 6th October at the 30 Years in Care event at Steepleton Manor.
Well done to Dawn, Jackie, Kellie,
Julie and Jodie!
Photo: from left to right;
Dawn Andrews: 5 year service award
Jackie Hill: Dementia Carer award
Kellie Gumbrill: Outstanding Contribution to Altogether Care
Julie Smith: Care and Compassion award
Jodie Hodge: Outstanding Achievement
On Saturday 6th October, Steepleton Manor Care Home near Dorchester opened its doors to the local community to celebrate 30 Years in Care.
The event was a great success, providing a chance for guests to look around the newly refurbished luxury assisted living rooms and facilities and raise money for local charity Hangers Heroes.
The Dorchester Town Cryer opened the event, following a performance from traditional Highland piper Piper 2000. Live music was provided by Poole Borough Band with songs from the likes of Oklahoma, Singing in the Rain and The Beatles, and Wessex FM broadcasting live from the home. Dorchester Classic Vehicle Club’s display of classic cars took pride of place in front of the home.
Residents, staff and guests enjoyed a performance of ‘The Gold Old Days’ Pantomime from Party Time Productions, with younger guests being entertained with balloon modelling from Totally Twisted and face painting from About Face. Jester Patch provided two lively performances for everyone to enjoy – complete with audience participation! We even managed to fit some Alpacas and Owls into the main hall for everyone to meet.
Altogether Care CEO Steve Knell said: “It was a real pleasure to showcase Steepleton Manor at such a special event celebrating 30 years as a family run care provider. It was great to see so many faces from the past and present – staff, residents, clients and entertainers. It made for a really special day.”
A total of £486 was raised for Hangers Heroes – we would like to extend a huge thank you to all performers, guests and care home staff for making the day a huge success.
You can view the photos from the day from visiting our Facebook page.
Care at home is a lifeline for many elderly people. Being able to receive help with tasks such as getting in and out of bed, washing, dressing and housework can make all the difference to people who need some assistive care but want to stay in their own home.
Knowing a trusted home care provider can make all the difference. Altogether Care has an established reputation for providing high quality residential and domiciliary care in Dorset and Somerset. We are driven by helping people to live as independently as possible. Building on this success, we are now able to offer the following care services in the Southampton area:
We aim to help people continue to live life as independently as possible, with the reassurance that help is available through pre-arranged visits at times they choose. Just because everyday tasks are becoming a little more difficult, it doesn’t mean that you have to give up your independence.
Extended Services
Staying in your own home might also mean that some help is needed with every day, non-care activities such as DIY, gardening and cleaning. To make life easier for our clients we’ve extended our services to include these tasks. Whatever support you need you can get it from one trusted organisation.
Being an established care provider means that we can carefully select and vet tradespeople who will understand your needs and be ideally suited to helping older people in their own homes.
In launching our Southampton office, we are bringing the same family-run, caring approach that has earned us an excellent reputation for in care for 30 years. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch with us on 02382 351 800 or visit our Southampton home care services page.
First of all, Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections are a good thing. It is important that there is accountability so that people placing their trust in care services can have confidence that the system is properly regulated.
Accountability also helps providers with common performance benchmarks and guidance on where we can improve.
To make best use of CQC inspection reports when choosing a care home or home care provider, it can help to understand a bit of background and context. Inspectors report on whether services are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. There are four possible ratings: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate. There is no category for ‘satisfactory.’
Some of the inspection rating is based on documentation such as procedures and record keeping and some of it is essentially a snapshot of what inspectors saw and who they spoke to. So, there could be some subjectivity in the findings- there’s also potentially some randomness based on exactly when the inspection happened.
There’s no doubt too, that some providers are better at the process of preparing for inspections than others. Although you could argue that this is what you’d expect from a well-managed organisation.
What do Ratings Mean?
Don’t dismiss homes simply if they are not Outstanding or Good. Care providers, and more importantly, care users are highly individual and other factors should also be considered.
For example, a home with a lower rating may be a better choice for an individual if the location makes it easier for relatives to visit and for the resident to maintain links with the community they come from. It may be that the facilities and activities on offer are more in line with what a particular person wants.
Similarly, you shouldn’t necessarily be put off a care home because its CQC rating at its last inspection was ‘Requires Improvement.’ There may not be that much practical difference between a provider that just got over the threshold to be rated ‘Good’ and one that didn’t quite make it.
If a home or provider is said to require improvement, it’s important to understand what this means. It could be that they provide essentially safe and effective care but need to tighten up some of their management processes. Even a provider with an ‘Inadequate’ rating shouldn’t be discounted out of hand if the management is taking urgent and purposeful action to correct the shortcomings found in the inspection.
The best way to identify the most suitable care home is to arrange a visit during a normal day to see for yourself whether residents look happy and well cared for. By all means, take along a copy of the most recent inspection report and talk through any concerns with the manager. More importantly, go with an open mind and ask: ‘is this a place where I or my loved one could live the life they want to live. To arrange a visit at any of our ‘Good’ care homes, contact us today on 01305 300 161.
Staff from Care at Home in Yeovil have been praised for their outstanding care service in a recent inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
Over 100 local people receive care in their own homes by the staff in the Yeovil office which received an overall rating of ‘Good’.
The two day inspection took place in June and focused on a variety of areas including safety, management and how responsive the staff are.
A total of 25 care staff work at the office which is part of Altogether Care, a Dorset based care provider which is family owned.
Care skills and knowledge were also praised along with staff’s ability to build relationships with their service users. The report also stated that dignity and privacy were respected at all times and the Manager of the Yeovil office was open and approachable.
The report also highlighted that systems are in place to monitor the quality of the service and to respond to concerns and complaints and to learn from issues raised and that people received effective care and support from staff who had the skills and knowledge to meet their needs.
Caitlin Hughes, Manager of Care at Home in Yeovil said,
“We are all delighted to receive such a positive result of our recent inspection. We may be a small team but we deliver a big service. We do our best to offer the best possible care service to local residents in their own homes and we respect that each person is an individual with different requirements”.
Photo L-R: Lisa Charles-Field, Caitlin Hughes, Zoe Jone, Helen Lambden
Congratulations to Laura House and Charley Blackburn from Care at Home, West Moors. Both ladies received a 5-year service awards this month. Ami Vine presented the awards along with a big ‘well done’!
The simplest answer to that question is probably: when it is what suits the care needs and wishes of the individual concerned. Naturally, things are rarely that simple.
There are many reasons why a person might need either temporary or long-term care. And, for many, their own home is where they would prefer to receive that care, rather than in a residential setting. Receiving care at home can result in more independence, a better quality of life and speedier recovery from major illness and accidents.
Having good quality home care services available can help to bring about earlier discharges from hospital. This frees a hospital bed and usually helps people recover more quickly when all they really need is some help with housework or personal care while they regain the strength and mobility needed to perform these tasks safely for themselves.
Familiar Surroundings
For some, residential care would also mean becoming more distant from family, friends and a familiar environment. Being able to remain in their own home for as long as possible is important to them and improves their quality of life.
The critical thing is that there are good quality home care services available that can be moulded around individual needs. This could help with simple everyday tasks such as cleaning, washing and ironing, shopping, cooking and collecting pensions. In other cases, the need is for a transport and escort service for medical appointments, day care attendance, and general outings.
No two people’s situations are identical. The care delivered must, therefore, fit with their circumstances and their goals. The care package will often include activity therapy, which plays a vital role in helping people to recover skills and independence following an accident or stay in hospital.
And sometimes it’s the carer who needs a break if, for example, they are helping to look after with somebody who has dementia. A short period of care from a specialist dementia nurse can offer the opportunity for a much-needed rest.
Altogether Care offers a wide range of Care at Home services. To find out more and discuss the care needs of you or a close relative call us on 01305 300 161.
Congratulations are sent to Tom Callingham from Care at Home, West Moors, and his lovely wife Rachel, who gave birth to their first baby last week. The proud new parents have a beautiful daughter named Genevieve.
Congratulations to Sharon Curtis from Care at Home, West Moors who was awarded her five year service badge in May. Sharon is a valuable and much loved member of the team.
Older people in Dorset will receive a free Christmas dinner and pudding thanks to Dorset based organisation, Care at Home and Wiltshire Farm Foods.
Carer’s will visit hundreds of older people on Christmas Day to serve the seasonal meal and spend time pulling a cracker and talking to residents throughout Dorset. It means a number of older people will not be alone this Christmas.
A traditional Christmas dinner including a pudding will be provided free of charge by Wiltshire Farm Foods.
Care at Home provide a variety of care services to older people in and around Dorset and Somerset and came up with the idea to support their clients this Christmas.
Dawn McGill, from Care at Home said, “Christmas can be a lonely time for many older people and not everyone can spend Christmas with family. We visit our clients all year round to support them with a variety of daily tasks and wanted to extend that visit to include Christmas Day. Wiltshire Farm Foods very kindly offered to donate a free Christmas meal and we wanted to make the most of this by personally visiting each person and spending time with them to make their day special”.
Care at Home are part of Altogether Care, a Dorset based care provider which is a family owned business.
Free meals and visits will take place throughout Dorset and some parts of Somerset.
Photo: Hannah McDonald from Care at Home with Raymond Brunt
We held an internal competition this year to see which of our colleagues could raise the highest amount for our chosen charity, Hangers Heroes. This charity raises money for local charities in Dorset through many different events and fundraising activities that are thrown throughout the year. Just some of their supported charities include Dorset Search and Rescue, Stella Hayward Rising for the Disabled, Steve Charles Help a Friend Fund and Weymouth Street Pastors.
We are delighted to announce that the winner of this competition is Jessica Thompson!
Jessica braved the skies and completed a tandem 15,000ft skydive raising over £500 for Hangers Heroes. We are extremely proud of her fundraising work; this money will help support Hangers Heroes vital work with local charities.
As the winner, she will receive £150 alongside the incredible memories and stories that she can now share about her brave and exhilarating experience.
Find out more about Hangers Heroes here and like them on Facebook.
Home care services seem to be continuously in the news. Mostly the coverage focuses on the struggle the sector is having to secure a sustainable future. But away from the headlines it’s clear that there is a continuing and growing need for home care services.
Some care homes are closing, social care budgets are tightening, and some service users are choosing to spend personal care budgets to help them continue living in their own homes. All of these factors, alongside the target to speed up the transfer of care from hospitals to care services, drive an increasing need for care at home.
It isn’t just the ageing population and the projected growth of conditions like Alzheimer’s that affect people’s ability to live completely independently. Many other people find that they need help to live independently in their own homes either in the form of care visits or live in care.
Care at home delivers vital support to people with mental health issues, physical disabilities and learning difficulties. The range of support offered is far wider than many people imagine, spanning everything from temporary re-ablement care for people recovering from serious medical conditions, to long term high dependency care.
The scope of the service is extremely broad and could include practical support to live independently as part of a community, help with personal care, dementia care and end of life care.
Care at home plays a vital role, not just in the context of social care but within the social fabric of the country. And it could do much more given the right support and funding. It’s time that role was more widely recognised and appreciated.
In some circumstances, home care can be more cost effective and better for the emotional wellbeing of service users than residential care, particularly when they are part of a supportive community of carers and neighbours. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where care at home doesn’t play an increasingly significant role in supporting people with additional needs at any stage of life.
It isn’t the best option for everyone but we believe strongly that it should be the needs and circumstances of each individual that determines the care they receive, rather than what is available or less expensive.
If you are currently considering the care options for your loved one and would like to discuss what would best suit their needs, contact Altogether Care. Our diverse range of care options can be tailor made to suit your individual needs, from care at home and live-in care to high end residential homes and specialist dementia care homes. Our experienced and caring team are here to help you, call 01305 300 161 or visit our website for more information.
We have received a positive response to the opening of our three latest Care at Home offices in West Moors, Poole and Yeovil.
Our ‘Care at Home’ branches offer local people an opportunity to explore and arrange care services for their loved ones by popping into see our specialist staff, who can assist in arranging a wide spectrum of care services for people who wish to remain in their own home but may require regular assistance.
We have been astonished by the high take-up of our care service and the high degree of customer satisfaction and happiness. This, we believe, is due to the scope and reliability of our local service for local people and its pick and mix characteristics. The engagement of our staff and their commitment to providing the best service is so rewarding and exciting to be part of. Care at Home is an important part of the local health and social care infrastructure, and for many people it provides a lifeline and a chance to remain safe at home for longer.
As we live longer the question of how we will cope with the challenges of old age is becoming more and more pertinent to an ever increasing number of people in Britain.
Across Dorset and South Somerset, Altogether Care a leading provider of age related care is taking a fresh approach.
Offering a range of residential, nursing centres and community based Care at Home services reaching from Bournemouth to Yeovil, this family run organisation puts emphasis on recognising that as individuals we are all different and there should be no one size fits all approach to care and support.
Altogether Care is able to offer a broad range of outcome based care that is firmly focused and tailored to each person as an individual.
Altogether Care supports and enables individuals to be active participants in their support rather than simply passive recipients of care. For most people maintaining independence is of huge importance and Altogether Care’s flexible care routes are designed to support this.
Offering an integrated care pathway, from regular home visits which are fundamental in reducing social isolation for those who need a relatively low level of support and monitoring, progressing then to live-in care options for those who may be more dependent but very much want to stay at home, to specialist residential, nursing and dementia care for those who may ultimately need a higher level of support. In addition, Altogether Care is a well regarded provider of palliative and end of life care.
Prominent in Altogether Care’s portfolio of services are Sherborne House in Yeovil a specialist dementia and high dependency service, Weymouth Care Home providing residential and nursing services and Steepleton Manor.
Steepleton Manor must be almost unique in so far as this service it is able to offer; residential, nursing and end of life care in the setting of a late Victorian Manor house, in the idyllic Dorset countryside of Thomas Hardy.
Wherever the setting Altogether Care’s commitment is to delivering high quality care based on not only what is important for an individual but also what is important to an individual.
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