Day in the life of a live-in carer

03/09/2016

Key points:

•    Based on experiences gathered since 2009
•    Carers must have an extensive range of personable qualities (listed in article)
•    Carers make sacrifices, but these are outweighed by meaningful gains (listed in article)
•    Live-in care provision is not restricted to any single demographic
•    Our carers support clients in a number of different ways each day (listed in article)
•    Live-in care can drastically improve both physical and mental health outcomes#
 

Key statistics*:

• 80% of carers believe that care in the home is more beneficial than residential care
• We have achieved a lower potentially avoidable hospital admission rate of 1% (compared to 10% in the wider population)
• Our 'Falls Management Programme' saw a 97% reduction in falls within nine months and 100% reduction within 12 months
• Our standard of care reduced incidents of challenging behaviour among dementia patients by 80% in 3 months
 

Awards:

•    'National Winner 2015': Great British Care Awards
•    'National Dementia Care Awards Winner': National Dementia Care Awards
•    'Domiciliary care provider of the year': Health Investor Awards 2014
•    'Specialist Care Provider': Laing Buisson Awards 2014
 

Summary:

The Good Care Group's expert live-in carers provide bespoke, highly-specialised care in the home for vulnerable people across the UK. The Good Care Group has aggregated the information obtained from its live-in carers since the company was founded in 2009, alongside facts gathered for a guide recently released by the company. The Good Care Group wishes to share this research in order to give greater insight into the typical daily activities of live-in carers, how they can support loved ones and why they should be considered as highly valuable to society as a whole. 
 

Body:

Most of us will need a carer of some description in our lifetime, but few of us understand what they do.

Research has confirmed that 97% of people do not want to move into residential care when they are older, with 71% stating that they ultimately wish to pass away at home. 80% of carers believe that receiving care in the home environment is more beneficial than residential care.   

Live-in care can provide a quality of service and improved health outcomes that significantly outweigh those found in the traditional care home model. 
 

What makes a good live-in carer?
 

Our live-in carers work with a whole variety of people in different environments across the country. Carers work with individuals and couples, both in cities and the countryside. Many of our clients have some level of dementia, while most others are frail and in need of support with physical activities around the house.
What type of person does a live-in carer work with?Live-in carers also recognise the additional physical and mental health benefits that come when care is kept in the home.
 
We employ all of our highly-trained carers directly to ensure that they meet rigorous standards.
 

Dementia Care

90% of all people with dementia experience difficult behaviour patterns. However, with the operational expertise working in tandem with strategic reporting, we have been able to reduce instances of challenging behaviour among dementia patients by 80% in three months.
Therefore, only 45% of clients with dementia experienced behavioural challenges despite many living with advanced dementia. The reduction in stress factors that our carers have been able to achieve has lowered the rate of our clients with dementia that require antipsychotic medicine to 6% (compared to 22.5% of dementia patients in the wider population). 
 

Typical activities in the day of a live-in carer

The daily activities of our live-in carers can be split into two categories: practical assistance and personal interaction. The latter is an ongoing process that aims to give clients a route to express themselves, find company or raise concerns. Practical activities undertaken by carers include:

•    Mobility
•    Medication
•    Cooking
•    Cleaning
•    Laundry
•    Shopping
•    Bathing

Depending on the needs of a client, our live-in carers may have down time at various points throughout the day, or for a number of hours in the evening.
Our care standards have enabled us to make noticeable improvements to the quality of life of our clients. This can be cited by our potentially avoidable hospital admission rate of 1% compared to 10% in the wider population, including a rate of admission for dehydration of 0.3% compared to 12% of the elderly population not receiving live-in care. In addition, our Falls Management Programme resulted in a 97% reduction in falls within nine months and 100% reduction within 12 months.
 

What are the highs and the lows? Challenges

•    For some, working away from friends and family
•    Learning to make the most of down time
•    Ensuring any dementia-related needs are met
•    Delivering consistent physical assistance
•    Dealing with the emotional aspect of caring for a vulnerable person
•    Making a quantifiable improvement to the health and happiness of the client
•    Finding a personal sense of achievement and adding meaning to their own life
•    Helping to ensure independence and dignity
•    Conversing with people who have led fascinating lives
•    Enabling clients to stay in their own homes
•    Rigorous professional training and development - ongoing during employment to ensure carers remain at the forefront of care  knowledge
 

Rewards

•    Making a quantifiable improvement to the health and happiness of the client
•    Finding a personal sense of achievement and adding meaning to their own life
•    Helping to ensure independence and dignity
•    Conversing with people who have led fascinating lives
•    Enabling clients to stay in their own homes
•    Rigorous professional training and development - ongoing during employment to ensure carers remain at the forefront of care knowledge

 

Written by The Good Care Group