Care home vs full time carers

Arthurian

Care home fees are so enormous that I wonder if it might be cheaper, all things considered, to employ carers on a 3 shift basis, so that there is always someone there to look after the elderly person, in their own home. Has anyone here tried this? Is it worth considering? (What sparked this thought was someone on Radio 4 saying their mother's care home fees had just gone up to £77,000pa.)

elsien

Carer (including agency fees etc) £15 an hour, give or take. That's £360 per day. £131400 per year. More if the person needs two carers for mobility or behavioural reasons. Plus the costs of cover if people go sick.
It's not a cheap option. You could do it more cheaply with directly employing personal assistants, but then you have to factor in holidays etc and worry about getting cover quickly if someone hands in their notice. Or go back to using an agency who are unlikely to cover night shifts or bank holidays without hugely inflating the hourly rate.

Torry_Quine

You would need more than three to cover days off, holidays etc.it would be much more expensive than a care home.

lessonlearned

I managed to do this for a while but it was terribly difficult to co-ordinate it all, and we weren't trying to cover night times.

We had 3 PAs and two agencies. Juggling Rotas, sorting out hours, Paying wages and invoices etc was very time consuming

It cost around £1300 a month, for daytime care 5 days a week, morning bathing calls, and, when we could get help, the putting to bed routine. I did the weekends by myself apart from the mornjng and evening call. I would estimate around 40 hours of paid care, one paid Carer and either myself or my son assisting.

The real difficulty was getting someone to do evening calls, no one wanted to come later than 7 pm, so often it was left to my son and I.

As my husband's condition deferiorated we eventually had to concede defeat and he went into care. We kept home care going as long as we could but there did come a point where it was no longer feasible.

Depending on the severity of the illness you could be looking at 24 X 2 X 7, plus premium rates for weekends and bank holidays, holiday and sickness cover...

I Think if it was just one live in Carer then the figures just about even out, but if two carers are required for transfers, bathing etc then it becomes both more complex and considerably more expensive.

Finefoot

Don't forget if you employ Carers you also need liability insurance. You could possibly get some help from Social Services for this. Call up and ask for an assessment.

converted

You have also got to think about how intrusive it can be to have a whole load of different carers coming in and out of your home on a daily basis. Some of whom will be very good, others will be useless and can you trust them all.


In a care home there are always carers there to respond when you need the help (to an extent) your own room is your private domain, there is also company/activities to be had when you want to be social. You can also ensure your belongings are safe.

G_M

We paid £680 pm to an agency for a live-in carer. On top of that we provided her food. (She did the shopping for herself and mum and we reimbursed).

She had 2 hours off a day which we covered with family visits so mum wasn't left alone.

The contract specified that if she was woken /called on excesively at night there were extra payments or ultimately a 2nd carer would be required. We were lucky that she was very accomodating so we never found out the definition of 'excessive' and she never reported night-calls to the agency.

We also paid to increase her car insurance for work, and for AA breakdown cover, so she could take mum out.

converted

Are you sure that this is per month and not per week - I would be astounded if you could get a live in carer for that amount per month which works out at £157pw!

jackyann

I think we pay be talking about a very different level of care. I have known some live-in carers who operate a bit like au-pairs - some personal care help & company in return for board & lodging + a bit of money.

I think the level of care OP is talking about is much higher.

Arthurian

Yes, I was thinking of a higher level of care - not qualifying for state-paid nursing care, yet not to be left alone.

PasturesNew

When you go into a care home there are no ongoing house costs. No council tax, no bills, no insurance, no phone line, no maintenance, no grass cutting, no window washing, no gardening. There are also no food bills. No transport costs to get to/from Doctors and hairdressers.

Then there are breakdowns/callouts and replacements - heating system, new washing machine, new kettle, etc.

You have to add in the cost of running a home for somebody who is living in it and needs to have that home "serviced". I can stand at my door and decide/not to cut my grass....if I'm 90 and somebody's deciding that for me then that'll turn out to be a gardener once a fortnight for a few more quid.

All those quids add up.

And what about the cost of entertainment? You can't have them sitting alone in a house with carers 24/7, they'll need some form of outside chit-chat, entertainment. In a home they've got 30+ other people to chit-chat to; visiting entertainments; things going on, a buzz around them. Special "teatime" put on for significant dates; VE Day, Queen's Birthday, etc. Birthday cakes/singing happy birthday every time it's somebody's birthday. Santa visits at Xmas; the Easter Bunny gives them an egg at Easter. To get them out of the house to do "stuff" is tricky and costs money.

Quality of life is bought in a care home.