If you’re looking for support for a loved one, but are unsure how Home Care can help, our latest blog post explains the role and duties of a home carer.
In this blog, we discuss the different types of Home Care available, the duties of a home carer – such as supporting with personal care, meal preparation and symptom progression amongst others – and the many benefits home care can provide.
Keep reading to discover all the ways a home carer can provide help and support to your loved one.
What is a home carer?
As the name suggests, a home carer visits people in their homes to help with everyday tasks. These can range from providing companionship to help with bathing, dressing and eating.
The goal of a home carer is to help people live independently in their own homes by supporting them with a range of activities.
The different types of Home Care
The type of Home Care (also known as, “domiciliary care”) required varies according to your loved one’s needs.
Personal care
Personal care supports people with everyday tasks. These include washing, getting dressed, and household tasks like shopping and meal preparation.
Companion care
This type of care offers companionship and emotional support either inside or outside the home.
Respite care
Respite care gives family carers a break from their duties, taking on the tasks that family carers would normally carry out.
Live-in care
This is when carers come to a client’s home and live with them 24/7, offering companionship and support with a wide range of activities.
Dementia care
Dementia care is provided by specially trained carers to support people living with this condition in a variety of ways.
Mental health care
Mental health care supports people with a range of mental health conditions with everyday tasks and activities.
Read our post Understanding the types of Home Care services available and which one is the right fit for more information.
You can also learn more about finding the care you or a loved one needs at home on the Age UK website.
Duties of a home carer
Home carer duties include a wide range of tasks and responsibilities, according to their clients’ unique needs.
Personal care
Home carers can provide personal care, which includes help with washing, dressing and using the toilet. It encompasses any aspect of personal hygiene, so it also includes using continence products.
Meal preparation
Preparing meals is an essential aspect of home carer duties. They can work with your loved one or alone to cook nutritious meals as well as help them eat or keep them company at meal times.
Help with housework
Housework is another vital task that home carers can provide. Light household tasks they can help with include dusting, vacuuming, laundry and ironing.
Medication support
Home carers are trained to support clients take their medication at the right time to ensure they keep on top of their regime.
Support and companionship
Even if a client doesn’t need help with everyday tasks, they could still benefit from the support and companionship a home carer can provide. This can range from playing board games or watching TV together at home to going for an outing.
Respite care
Respite care duties include everything a family carer would normally do and will depend case-by-case. It could be anything from one or two visits a week to offer companionship and support to daily personal care and help with meals. You can learn more about respite care on the HelpGuide.org website.
Help with appointments
Home carers can help with all kinds of appointments. These can include helping the client get to and from their doctor’s surgery or hospital or even accompanying them to the hairdresser’s.
Morning and evening routines
Home carer duties include support with morning and evening routines. This involves helping a client get up, washed and dressed in the morning and ready for bed in the evening.
Symptom progression
If a client’s symptoms change or worsen, a home carer can adapt their duties to suit their changing needs. For example, they may start supporting a client by helping with housework and meal preparation. They may then progress to giving personal care if the client’s condition deteriorates.
Live-in care
Live-in care duties cover anything and everything that needs to be done to support a client over a 24/7 period. A carer will stay in their home and offer them companionship, we well as helping with a wide range of activities, from washing and dressing to housework and medication support.
Benefits of Home Care
Home Care aims to help your loved one to live well at home by supporting their lifestyle. It can help them:
Maintain their independence
Continue to live in their home
Keep up with appointments
Enjoy their hobbies
Maintain relationships with loved ones
Keep healthy by eating well and taking their medication
These are just some of the benefits of Home Care. All the duties of a home carer help their clients to achieve their best lifestyle, in the comfort of their own home.
Why Bramble Home Care?
Bramble Home Care provides compassionate Home Care to clients throughout Gloucestershire. Alongside regular Home Care, we also offer Dementia and Mental Health Home Care as specialist services.
We have been established since 2010. From the outset, our mission has been to help people live the best lives they can in their own homes. Our team of home carers reflect this ethos, delivering personalised, quality care day in, day out.
You can find out more about our range of services and packages here.
What conditions can Bramble Home Care help with?
Our team are trained to provide care to people living with a wide range of conditions. It could be that your loved one simply needs extra support due to increasing age and frailty. Or they may be living with a specific medical condition, which may affect their ability to perform everyday tasks.
Sometimes our clients are living with more than one condition and have complex health needs. We are always ready to adjust to their individual circumstances.
We provide specialist Home Care for people living with dementia and mental health conditions too.
These are some of the conditions our carers can support people with:
Acquired brain injury
Alzheimer’s disease
Cancer
Dementia
Huntington’s disease
Mental health conditions
Motor neurone disease
Multiple sclerosis
Parkinson’s disease
Spinal cord injury
Stroke
Our carers can also support people with gastrostomy, catheter, bowel and stoma care, which may be needed as a result of medical conditions.
Know the difference a carer can make
At Bramble Home Care, we know the difference the duties of a home carer can make. If you’d like to discuss how our carers could help your relative or need help choosing a Home Care provider, please contact our friendly team.
You can book a Home Care consultation to take place in your or your loved one’s home at a time that suits you.
Or choose another way to contact us:
Call us on 01684 217040
Email us at enquiries@bramblehomecare.co.uk