Any ideas for grocery shopping when elderly parent can no longer drive?

Blue_Doggy

elsien said:

Blue_Doggy said:

Could you set up a delivery facility with their favoured supermarket? Then they give you their shopping list and preferred delivery date & time*, you do the online shop for them, and it’s delivered to their home.
 

My friend used to do this for her father (she lived in Southampton and her father in Rugby) and it worked very well for both of them. 
 
*obviously there’d have to be some wiggle room scheduling this, unless the supermarket allows a regular delivery slot to be arranged.

His mother wants to continue doing this herself, rather than online.

Oh, ok. My bad, I just thought it might help.

Wyndham

elsien said:

You are not going to get an adult social care assessment just for a bit of shopping.  Many care agencies also do home visits and care but not support with shopping.
As a starting point, see if Age UK offer anything in your area.
Food and grocery shopping help for the elderly | Age UK

Otherwise check out  care agencies  - national ones such as Helping Hands (not a recommendation as I've not used them but it is something they offer) or ask on local social media for recommendations. 
You can check out any agency on the CQC website although the ratings may be out of date. 
Find homecare agencies - Care Quality Commission

Or there  may be a local individual - you need references and a current DBS. That's how parent found her cleaner - word of mouth via friends of a similar age. 

Really helpful, thank you!

Wyndham

elsien said:

Blue_Doggy said:

Could you set up a delivery facility with their favoured supermarket? Then they give you their shopping list and preferred delivery date & time*, you do the online shop for them, and it’s delivered to their home.
 

My friend used to do this for her father (she lived in Southampton and her father in Rugby) and it worked very well for both of them. 
 
*obviously there’d have to be some wiggle room scheduling this, unless the supermarket allows a regular delivery slot to be arranged.

His mother wants to continue doing this herself, rather than online.

Well, for the record.... HER mother IN LAW does

Wyndham

lr1277 said:

There is more than one organisation where people can help with things like this:

1) Age UK have people you can pay for. Contact your nearest branch if it is a suitable distance. My aunt has an Age UK person come in and do her cleaning. I am sure they would be able to take somebody shopping.

2) There are care agencies that provide care at home. However we found one of these care agencies to take my dad to the park for a walk once a week. I can't remember how we found the agency other than going through Yellow Pages. Then we interviewed the candidate agencies.

Edited to add: Dad usually got the same carer, but sometimes another carer would come along to do the job.

And I think once the carer was late because their previous client had injured themselves so they had to wait till the ambulance came. I have no idea on the timings of the person used by my aunt.

When my dad needed home based care as he was bed bound, the local social services (possibly based at the county council) gave us the name of a couple of local agencies. One was the agency we used before but they were a few pounds an hour more expensive than the 2nd agency recommended. We tried the 2nd agency and they were good. A little harder to contact but the staff were excellent.

The older people's GP might have an idea which part of the (county) council to contact to get recommendations for care agencies.

Thank you - I will follow these up.

Wyndham

Blue_Doggy said:

elsien said:

Blue_Doggy said:

Could you set up a delivery facility with their favoured supermarket? Then they give you their shopping list and preferred delivery date & time*, you do the online shop for them, and it’s delivered to their home.
 

My friend used to do this for her father (she lived in Southampton and her father in Rugby) and it worked very well for both of them. 
 
*obviously there’d have to be some wiggle room scheduling this, unless the supermarket allows a regular delivery slot to be arranged.

His mother wants to continue doing this herself, rather than online.

Oh, ok. My bad, I just thought it might help.

As the OP, I do appreciate the suggestion. At the moment we want all the options we can, so thank you!

Emmia

Brie said:

Sounds an ideal way for a local teen with a driving license earn some pocket money.  She can go to the supermarket, teen agree to meet to pick up 30 minutes later or at an arranged time, drive her home and help her get stuff into the kitchen and packed away.  Or teen could drive both ways and help with shopping too.  I'd rather spend £10 (or?) that way than on a random taxi.  

Might be a much more pleasant way to earn a bit rather than babysitting.  And an elderly couple may very well welcome a friendly younger person in their lives.  

This means the teen should have the appropriate insurance policy as they'd be effectively acting as a taxi and receiving payment. If they've got a standard policy, this will exclude hire and reward i.e. being paid to drive someone from A to B.

In the event of an accident, and the insurer becoming aware of this activity they will find their insurance is invalid, with bigger repercussions for them, than the person they're transporting.

silvercar

Are there local religious groups or community care groups that could do this? I know during covid, when a lot of the elderly were fearful to go out, a local community care group arranged for volunteers to do shopping for people. No car insurance problems as most insurance covers charity work. They also arrange DBS checks for volunteers.

Mojisola

Could you organise an on-line shop of stuff they need every week so that MiL can still go to the supermarket but just shop of the 'extras' so she won't have a very heavy bag to carry home?

Savvy_Sue

My parents never drove, nor did they do online shopping!

However, there was an excellent local AgeUK centre nearby, which offered lunch every weekday and afternoon shopping trips twice a week. One went to Sainsbury's, the other to Lidl. The minibus left the day centre, everyone got an hour or so shopping, then the minibus took you home and the driver carried your bags in for you.

A friend works for a local care agency, and takes some of the clients shopping. 

If parents attended church or other place of worship, that's a good place to start enquiries.

p00hsticks

Zinger549 said:

Iceland do home delivery service in-store. You do your shopping as normal, pay at the till and then pick a delivery slot.

Our large co-op supermarket offers the same for a minimum spend .of £25