Home Care - What should I look for in a carer?
Home Care Questions - Other Episodes:
Home Care Questions - Episode 1 - Home Care - What should I consider?
Home Care Questions - Episode 2 - Home Care - What should I look for in a carer?
Home Care Questions - Episode 3 - Home Care - Which fall alarm should I buy?
Home Care Questions - Episode 4 - Home Care - How do I make the care a success?
Home Care Questions - Episode 5 - Home Care - How do the carer profiles work?
Home Care Questions - Episode 6 - Home Care - What is a Local Care Expert?
Home Care Questions - Episode 7 - Home Care - What should I consider? Part 2
Home Care Questions - Episode 8 - Home Care - How do you talk to parents about care?
If you're thinking about getting home care to help support a loved one or looking at the option of a care home. There are lots of things to consider and think about. What should I look for in a carer?
The 1st thing we look for in a carer is whether they fit with our vision, it's really important to us that everyone involved with CareChooser is warm and caring and wants to make a difference to their local community.
Qualifications
A good level of qualification is Health and Social Care Level 2. You can get higher, level 3 and level 4. Level 5 is for home care management skills. Level 1 is quite basic, level 2 is a good level of qualification. This may or may not be important to you, we find some of the best carers don't have social care qualifications but have experience caring for loved ones and are warm and caring.
Skills
It's important to look into which skills are important to you as a family. Do you need a driver? Is the carer local enough to not need to drive? The tasks you need may affect this, does your loved one have lots of appointments to go to?
Is cooking an important skill for your carer? Personal care is an important one, check that the carer is willing to do personal care. All carers have their preferences, if personal care is a part of the care it's advisable to check this.
Price
Check the price of the carer, per hour, per day, per night or week and check it fits within your budget. Also check that the price of the carer includes the home care companies fee and is the full amount you'll fee. The prices on our profiles are include our fee. The prices vary slightly based on the carer's skills and qualifications.
Likes and dislikes
Get to know the carers likes and dislikes, our home care profiles tell you about the person, what they enjoy doing rather than just the clinical information.
DBS
Check the status of the carer's DBS certificate. Our profiles will say what stage the check is at 'Checked & Approved' or 'Not Yet Checked & Approved'. Also check that an enhanced DBS check has been done.
At CareChooser the most important factor we consider is whether the carer is warm and caring. Get in touch if we can help you find a carer or if we can help in any way.