Finding a Home Care Agency With The UKHCA
Putting a loved-one through the upheaval of moving into a residential care home may be beneficial in the long-run – as you'll be ensuring they receive the level of care they require – but this factor doesn't make the decision any easier for a family member to make. Some families opt for the care offered by a home care agency instead. Rather than having to move and adapt to a completely new environment, home care – offered by many a home care agency in the United Kingdom – entails a carer coming into the person receiving care's home to provide support. For the typical home care agency this will be its main offering, however, others might also offer live-in care.
Live-in care is very similar to the home care – provided by many a home care agency in the UK. The level of care provided is pretty much identical, however, it's provided round-the-clock by a carer rather than in regular daily visits. The carer, in this instance, will move in with the person they're charged with caring for. This option suits many families, as it allows them to feel confident that their loved-one's safe and being well looked after.
However, how would you go about finding a home care agency?
There are a number of ways you could approach the search for a home care agency, and none of them could be considered right or wrong. One of the best ways would be to go to the United Kingdom Home Care Association's (UKHCA) website. The UKHCA is the national professional association for organisations that provide care. It provides a significant amount of information on how to go about choosing the type of care that's likely to benefit your loved-one, as well as how to find a home care agency.
Being the national professional association for care organisations, it features an extensive list of all the home care agencies based in the UK. Regardless of where you reside in the UK, you can enter your postcode, hit search and the site will return a list of home care agencies based in your immediate area – providing name of the home care agency or care organisation, and its contact details (phone numbers, website).
When you get to this point, it is well worth grabbing a notepad and a pen, and writing down or printing off these details. If the returned home care agency results feature a website address (and most do), you could go about carrying out some in-depth research.