All departments
Department 04
A department of the publication
Getting help at home
Choosing, arranging and reviewing the support that comes to the door.
Guides in this department
Guides for describing what you see, not deciding what it means.
From here each guide opens as a working document. Every one names its sources and says what it deliberately doesn’t claim.
- What help at home can includeHelp at home covers more ground than the phrase suggests, from company and housework to personal care and nursing. Knowing the broad kinds can make a first conversation with a provider easier to follow.
- What good care at home can look likeRespect, familiar faces, unhurried visits and clear lines of communication are what guidance in England and an Irish evidence review describe.
- Questions to ask when choosing a carer or agencyA first conversation with an agency can move quickly. Having the questions guidance suggests asking, about who comes, what it costs and what happens when plans change, can help you keep track of it.
- Bringing a carer into your parent's homeA new carer walks into a home full of habits nobody has ever had to explain. A careful start, clear preferences and early, plain conversations can give the arrangement a better footing.
- Weighing care options with your parent and their health professionalsMore help at home, a different arrangement, a move: the options are wider than they first look. They are weighed together, with your parent and the health professionals who know them.
- When help at home has just begunThe first visits have happened. What guidance says a person may be given in writing at the start, who they can ask with questions, and how, with your parent, the arrangement can be adjusted and concerns raised.
- Asking for your parent's care to be looked at againThe help agreed at the start may stop fitting as things change. Who to ask, how your parent leads it, and where health questions go.
- When your parent's regular carer changesWhen a familiar carer leaves or is away, a routine can change. Ways to help your parent through it, and what the two of you can ask the provider.
Articles in this department
Shorter pieces that belong to this question.
5 articles in this department. Each carries a subject, which says what is changing; the department says which question it belongs to.
- How information moves between hospital and home careWhen a parent comes home from hospital, information has to travel with them. What guidance in some places says should be passed on, and to whom, and what you and your parent can ask before and after discharge.Providers and the systemGetting help
- What checks a carer may go throughBefore a paid carer comes to the door, an agency may check a few things. The kinds of checks that exist, and how you and your parent can ask about them.Providers and the systemGetting help
- What you can ask about your parent's care recordsWhat home care guidance and privacy regulators in some places say about your parent's care records, including asking to see what is held and to have it corrected. What you and your parent can ask, and who to ask.Providers and the systemGetting help
- Why home care visits are the length they areA visit can feel short from the outside. How visit lengths are usually set, what shapes them, and what you and your parent can ask if the time does not fit.Providers and the systemGetting help
- Meeting the carer before the care beginsWhen home care starts, NICE guidance in England says new care workers should be introduced to the person before they visit on their own. Why guidance there treats familiar faces as part of good care.Providers and the systemGetting help
From WeHomeCare
This section describes WeHomeCare's own product.
Care planIn WeHomeCare, care workers can see the tasks and instructions from the person's care plan within each visit.Care timelineWeHomeCare can be set up so families see when each visit took place, in one place.Visit updatesWeHomeCare can be set up so a family member far away hears about a visit from the provider.
MessagesWeHomeCare can be set up so family members and the care team write to each other in one place.Visit updates and messages from a care provider are not a way to reach urgent help.
Photos and videosWeHomeCare can be set up so a family far away sees photos and videos from a care visit.Reports for familiesWeHomeCare can be set up so families read a written account of care visits.We think your parent should decide what their family sees, and you can ask any care provider how it makes that possible.
From WeHomeCare: all pagesHow we source
Carefulness, made visible.
Named, not counted
Each guide names its sources and tags each one Primary or Secondary. It never counts sources at you.
Under-claiming on purpose
Where no authority sets a threshold, we say so rather than inventing one.
Naming the limit
Every guide names where its authority ends, and who to ask instead.