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There are estimated to be over 6.5 million carers in the UK. A carer may be responsible for providing care for a spouse, a relative or a close friend; they might be administering care from a professional care position. The care might be provided in a specialist care home, or it might be delivered from within the care recipient’s own home. Despite all these variations in the role of carers, one thing is for sure – caring presents a considerable amount of challenges on a daily basis. If, for example, you’re responsible for providing care in the home for a family member, there’s a good chance you’ll be dealing with a huge amount of situations you’re unfamiliar with. Whilst professional carers obviously receive training, many family carers are simply thrust into the role. Delivering care in the home is something that involves a lot of gradual learning, and a lot of adapting to dealing with situations as and when they arise. One of the many challenges you’ll face along the way, when providing care in the home, is learning all the technical terms, or jargon likely to be used by healthcare professionals at various points. Below, we’ve looked at just a small selection of the terms you may face whilst providing care in the home. We’ve provided definitions and detailed the instances in which they might be utilised. Home Care: Providing care in the home for a loved one can be both physically and mentally tiring. When looking after someone suffering from a degenerative illness, circumstances may dictate the need for additional outside help. If you’re providing care in the home, and the care recipient doesn’t want to move from their home, you’d probably look for home care in these circumstances. Home care is paid professional care. Professional care givers, usually employed by an agency, will come into the home of the person you’re providing care in the home for, to provide additional support. Respite: Respite is a term which, when mentioned, can stir up feelings of guilt amongst carers, responsible for delivering care in the home. However, it shouldn’t. It simply refers to a break carers take away from their usual day-to-day duties. This break doesn’t have to consist of a long holiday. It can consist of a couple of hours off during an evening, a couple of days, or something longer if that’s what you feel you need. For carers the issue with respite care often lies in ‘who’s going to provide care in the home whilst I’m off?’ There are many home care agencies that specialise in providing respite care. This involves a professional carer coming into the care recipient’s home and taking on your role and duties on a temporary basis. Care Plans: Before providing care of any kind, a care plan will be drawn up. Typically it’ll commence with a community care assessment. Then a local authority will draw up a detailed plan. This will outline the needs of the care recipient – outlining what’s required when providing care in the home – and the range of additional options available – home care, financial support and so on. Many people across the UK are responsible for providing care in the home. This article looks at some of the care-related terms one might encounter when delivering care. Learn more about home care at Helping Hands.
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