If you’re looking for dementia home care for a loved one, you want to know you’ve found the best service possible.
Good care looks different for everyone. Some of our clients benefit most from live-in care, whereas others may prefer drop-in visits. Some need personal care throughout the day and night, but others only need or want a few companionship visits over the week.
Whatever your loved one’s needs are, safety is top of everyone’s priority list. At Tiggo Care, we pride ourselves on providing a safe and effective dementia care service.
Safety in dementia home care starts with the staff team. You and your loved one must be able to trust the carers coming in regularly.
At Tiggo Care, our carers share our values:
Inviting someone new into your home can feel daunting, but we take care to ensure that the home carers we employ are the best people for the job.
As well as the usual interviews, everyone must also go through a series of pre-employment checks, including:
We’re committed to ensuring that we have a diverse and inclusive staff team. We want to reflect the diversity of our clients, and make sure that our carers can support people in the best way possible.
Once a carer has been hired, we ensure that they are well-trained. Even if they’ve worked in a similar role before, they must go through our training programme. We want to make sure that they have a range of skills that can help them support clients in the best way possible.
All of our carers must complete certain mandatory training, including the Care Certificate. This is a set of standard knowledge and training standards that all health and social care workers should follow. These standards include:
Many carers will go on to complete further qualifications, or they may take specific training courses depending on their interests or clients. Our care team are encouraged to complete NVQ qualifications in health and social care.
Having strangers coming into the home can be uncomfortable. For someone with dementia, this can be particularly distressing. Because of this, at Tiggo Care, we ensure that every client has at least two regular carers in their dementia home care package. This means that, even if one carer is away, your loved one will still see someone that they know and trust.
We all need to be prepared for emergencies. Dementia home care is a critical service, and we don’t want there to be an interruption in supporting your loved one.
At Tiggo Care, we have detailed plans for what would happen if none of your loved one’s regular carers were able to support them. We have people available to cover leave, sickness and emergencies, and can use bank staff if necessary.
Many people with dementia take at least one type of medication. Sometimes the medication is to help with their diagnosed dementia, or it may be for another health condition.
At Tiggo Care, we’re used to supporting clients with medication, and can ensure that your loved one’s health conditions are managed safely.
Your loved one’s care plan will include information about medication that they are prescribed, even if they do not currently need support with it.
However, as their condition progresses, you may find that they need help with their medicine. This could involve prompting and reminders to take it at the appropriate times, or medication administration. Any of these options can be written into your loved one’s dementia care plan.
The home care team will record each time they provide medication support. This includes:
We have the technology to record this digitally. This means that we can share information quickly and easily among care team members, as well as with you or other members of your loved one’s support system.
Medication training covers record-keeping and administration, as well as safe storage and disposal.
If your loved one’s medication is administered by a carer, they will be trained in how to do this. Part of the training will involve being observed and assessed by a senior staff member.
This will be repeated on a regular basis to ensure that their skills remain strong. This also allows us to share any new best practice.
As regular visitors to your relative’s home, carers may be some of the first to notice changes in their health, such as medication side effects, infections, pain or other concerns.
The home care team can keep in touch with other healthcare professionals who are supporting your loved one. This might include a GP or specialist, district nurse or pharmacist. This allows the care team to be aware of any underlying health conditions or any changes to medication that might be needed.
One of the goals of home care is to ensure that your loved one can remain as independent as possible, and celebrate their strengths. This means that they should be encouraged to do things for themselves where possible – including taking medication. However, as their condition progresses, they may no longer have the mental capacity or cognitive function to do this.
We review our clients’ care plans regularly. As their needs increase, we can offer further support.
Infection prevention and control is key to providing a safe environment for home care. Infections can be easily spread by very common personal care activities, and can easily make people very ill or worsen existing conditions.
All of our team members receive infection prevention and control training as part of their Care Certificate. We also provide regular refresher training to ensure our team are kept up to date with best practice.
Depending on the activity, your loved one’s carer may wear PPE (personal protective equipment). This may include face masks, gloves, face shields or other eye protection and aprons.
A carer may also take additional precautions if:
In some cases, it may be necessary to change PPE while supporting your loved one – for example, changing gloves between different personal care tasks.
Keeping the environment clean reduces the risk of infection. If your loved one needs support with cleaning, the home care team can add this to the dementia home care plan.
Bathrooms and kitchens are key areas to keep clean to avoid the spread of infection, as well as ensuring that your loved one has clean bedding and clothing.
When carers clean around the home, they will wear appropriate PPE.
During personal care, carers will wear any necessary PPE. In addition to this, they will practise good hand hygiene before and after providing care, even when wearing gloves.
If the carer needs to handle sharps, such as needles, they will be disposed of in a sharps container immediately. Any other healthcare waste, such as dressings or continence supplies, will also be disposed of correctly.
Carers prepare and serve food for many of our clients, and are trained in food hygiene. This means you can trust that they understand topics such as handwashing, safe food preparation and storage, cross-contamination and keeping the cooking environment clean.
As part of providing person-centred dementia home care, we will involve your loved one in their care as much as possible.
Carers do this through organic discussion while supporting them. In addition, the team hold regular assessments, ensuring that the care provided is what your loved one needs. We want to make sure that their independence and dignity are protected.
If they tell us or show us that they are distressed, we will take our cues from them. This may involve listening to them about the causes of their distress, or talking to family or other professionals about how best to manage anxiety or negative feelings around an activity.
We want your loved one to understand:
Safeguarding describes the measures taken to protect people from abuse and harm. People with dementia and those receiving care in their own homes are particularly in need of protection, because they may struggle to speak up if there were a problem.
Abuse can come in many forms. It may include:
If any member of the care team or your loved one’s support system have a concern about their care or abuse, it should be raised immediately.
At Tiggo Care, we can work with you, your loved one and other healthcare professionals to ensure that the home is safe for them.
This may be as simple as moving trip hazards or putting brighter lightbulbs in place. Or it may be more involved, such as installing mobility aids, replacing flooring or considering changes to the home layout.
Look at the home room-by-room to identify risks. If your loved one has been injured in a specific area, consider why that may have happened and if there is anything you can do to mitigate the risk in future.
Our staff team, clients and family members are all encouraged to raise concerns. Listening to their concerns provides us an opportunity to learn. This also means that we do not overlook risks, and ideally solve problems before they happen.
If an incident does occur, we will report and investigate appropriately, taking the necessary action.
At Tiggo Care, we’re proud to provide safe and effective care for our clients. We make sure that we evidence the quality statements provided by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This includes proving that the dementia home care we provide is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
A good home care service can help keep someone with dementia safe. This includes using home care workers who are safe and respectful, and who practise good infection prevention and control methods. Having more people involved in someone’s care, such as multiple carers, doctors and nurses, can lead to safeguarding issues being picked up more quickly.
Look at the home room-by-room and consider areas where the person may fall or be injured. For example, should trip hazards be removed, or knives or medication secured? Some modifications may be more involved, depending on the person’s condition. You may need to install grab rails, a stair lift or bathroom adaptations if they struggle with mobility.
While caring for someone with dementia, it’s important to listen to their cues. Explain to them what is happening and why. If they are showing distress, listen to their concerns. Even if someone has a diagnosis of dementia, it’s important that they are involved in decisions about their care as far as possible.
Many people with dementia can continue living alone. They may need support such as home care, particularly if they struggle with activities of daily living. As their condition progresses, this might include live-in care. However, continuing to live in their own home may make someone with dementia more comfortable.
Get in touch with Tiggo Care today to see how we can help you or your loved one.
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