Debbie Harris from the elderly care and retirement-living directory autumna.co.uk discusses the complexities of choosing a care home with Daisy and Annabel. She highlights the need for quick decision-making, with a typical six-week window, how Autumna supports over 3,000 families monthly, offering a care-finding tool and a seven-day advice line. The discussion also explores the current challenges facing the Care Quality Commission and the importance of understanding care needs, along with the impact of hospital discharge delays, and much more.
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Key takeaways from this episode:
Using a directory like Autumna, Identify what type of care is needed (e.g., residential, nursing, complex, dementia) and search for care homes accordingly.
It's important to identify a good care home, although the subjective nature of quality care to suit each individual means 'one size' rarely fits all.
Autumna offers a huge number of filters in the search function, covering pets, gender and LGBTQ+ wishes, food preferences and much more.
Consider factors like location, price, additional care needs, behaviors, nursing specialisms, food requirements, disability support, room types, and nearby services when searching for a care home.
Ensure power of attorney is in place and understand how long any available funds will realistically last before needing a transition to local authority funding (balancing circumstances with location choices, alongside the available budget).
Autumna is transparent and provides unbiased information.
Consider respite care as a temporary measure to get the elderly relative back on their feet before potentially returning home.
The conversation touches on the importance of positive social care stories - of which there are many - and the need for better press for the vast majority of cases.
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