Helping you to arrange respite care when you need it most

Often the first experience of a care home comes when a person has been living at home, cared for by a spouse or other relative.

Caring for a family member is a full-time job, without the salary but with added emotional pressure.

Many carers feel it is their duty to look after their family member, and they do it with love, but it is not easy for a child to become a parent to their own parent, or for a spouse to watch their partner’s character change.

For someone who is living with dementia, this often brings with it fear in an increasingly unfamiliar world, where total strangers might be telling them that they are their son or daughter, or that loved ones are long dead.

If this is not enough for a carer to deal with, they may also be still providing support to their own children – many carers are of a ‘sandwich generation’ – squeezed from both sides, so no wonder they need a break from time to time.

Respite care allows them to have just that. A short visit to a care home allows the person being cared for to also have a break, with professional carers who don’t have the emotional pressure and guilt trips of a family member.

Knowing that their loved one is being properly and professionally cared for, the carer can have some time for themselves.

Respite care can also be a trial period in a care home prior to committing to a longer term stay.