HOW LIVE-IN CARE TRANSFORMED ONE PERSON’S LIFE
October is West Sussex Care Month. Aimed at helping people access information and advice, enabling them to make the right choices, the campaign is targeted at anyone who is receiving care, caring for someone or a carer who needs support or would like a career in care. Linking to this initiative, we want to demonstrate how live-in care can transform a person’s life by recounting a true story. The following is a case study of an Otus Live-in Care client who found her life transformed with the help of live-in care. Naturally we have changed the names of all the individuals in this story to protect their privacy.
We first got to know Joyce when her niece contacted us. Joyce had suffered a stroke and was in hospital desperate to leave. Social Services had suggested that Joyce should go into a care home as she was too frail to live on her own and had early signs of dementia.
Joyce was determined not to have to leave her home and familiar surroundings behind. We set about trying to find her a carer who would be able to help her with her recovery and to regain her independence. Joyce was very precise about the type of person that she wanted to have care for her. She was a spinster and a little nervous about having a stranger living in her home. After lengthy discussions with Joyce’s family we set about finding a carer that we thought would be suitable. Joyce had always spent hours in her garden and found that the limitations her stroke had brought about frustrating. But with the carers’ assistance she was slowly able to do more and more. One of the carers re arranged Joyce’s greenhouse so she could access it to do some of the smaller tasks like potting up some bedding plants whilst her carer tackled the more difficult jobs. Getting Joyce back out to her garden really improved her outlook about life.
We introduced two different carers who worked on a rota basis, three weeks on three weeks off. This meant that Joyce got to know both her carers well and looked forward to their return every three weeks. She was comfortable with the carers changing every three weeks and described them both as wonderful friends even though they are like chalk and cheese. One of the carers was a former nurse with a wealth of experience in stroke recovery and she really helped with getting a recovery regime in place, encouraging Joyce with her exercises and prompting medication.
Joyce’s other passion in life had been cooking and food. Initially getting out and about to shop for food was extremely difficult and the carers used a wheelchair. The carers encouraged Joyce to continue with her physio and eventually she managed to progress to using a Zimmer frame to pop to the local village shop, or on a fine day, for a wander around the local garden centre followed by a cup of tea and cake. All in all, Joyce’s life was transformed by chosing to be cared for in her own home by profressional live-in carers.
If you have any questions about live-in care and the best way forward for your family, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Otus Live-in Care team on 01403 710119 for a no obligation chat. Or visit our website at www.otusliveincare.com. We’d love to be of help to you and answer any questions you may have.