Live-in Care in Lewisham

Lewisham • South East London

24-hour care at home in Lewisham with a live-in carer

Live-in care brings a Care Professional into your relative's Lewisham home to support them day to day, so they do not have to move. Set beside a care home, the main difference is one carer for one person. A Victorian terrace in Brockley, a flat near Lewisham High Street and a bungalow towards Downham all need different planning. We shape the support around the person and the house.

We do not have an office on Lewisham High Street. Our London office at Highview House, 167 Station Road, Edgware HA8 7JU arranges the Care Professionals we place in the borough. Each one completes enhanced DBS and right-to-work checks, references and training before starting in Catford or Blackheath. A consultant is reachable around the clock.

What live-in care in Lewisham includes

Discharge day is rarely the end of anything. Someone comes home from University Hospital Lewisham with a folder of instructions and a house that has not changed to meet them, and the first hard night tends to arrive before any of it has been properly thought through. Live-in care answers that moment squarely: a Care Professional in the home from the day your relative comes back, so the weeks afterwards are supported hour by hour rather than looked in on twice a day.

We arrange it throughout Lewisham, in Brockley, Hither Green, Catford, Forest Hill, Deptford and Downham. It does not have to be permanent: it can cover the weeks of recovery and then step down. If a discharge date has been set, talk to us before the day so a Care Professional is matched and in place when your relative gets home.

• ✓ A dedicated live-in Care Professional in the home
• ✓ Round-the-clock support, including overnight reassurance
• ✓ Personal care, washing, dressing and continence support
• ✓ Medication management and prompting
• ✓ Meal planning, cooking and nutrition
• ✓ Mobility support and help avoiding falls
• ✓ Support for couples under one arrangement
• ✓ Companionship, hobbies and days out

Our guide live-in care explained covers how the arrangement works day to day.

Why Lewisham families choose live-in care over a care home

Selling up and leaving a long-time home in Hither Green, Lee Green or Forest Hill is a lot to ask, and live-in care is one way to avoid it. The carer comes to your relative, so the bedroom, the garden, the GP surgery and friends around Catford all stay put. Help follows their day, not a communal timetable. Overnight, a live-in Care Professional is on hand for reassurance, help to the bathroom, or simply the comfort of knowing someone is there. Our guide to live-in care versus a care home compares the two side by side.

For couples the case is stronger still. Where one partner needs a great deal of help and the other a little, or where both need support, two people can be looked after under a single live-in arrangement in the home they share. That keeps a couple together, which a residential placement often cannot, and it frequently compares well on cost with two care-home rooms.

Local knowledge across Lewisham

We arrange live-in care across Blackheath and Lee Green, through Catford, Ladywell and Hither Green, out to Forest Hill, Sydenham and Crofton Park, and up towards Deptford and New Cross. A carer can help keep up the routines that make it home. That might be a morning at Lewisham Market, a walk in Ladywell Fields or a visit to the Horniman Museum.

Leaving University Hospital Lewisham

University Hospital Lewisham, on Lewisham High Street, is run by Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, which also runs Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich. Lewisham Council has a page on support when leaving hospital. It covers enablement, reviews of existing care packages and help for carers around discharge. If you are planning private live-in care, share the date with us early so the carer starts on the right day.

Council assessments and carers' help in Lewisham

When you contact Lewisham Adult Social Care, the team can offer a care needs assessment, a carer's assessment and a financial assessment. The NHS explains what a needs assessment involves, and it is free to ask. A carer's assessment looks at how caring affects your own health, work and time.

Carers Lewisham is a long-established local charity offering unpaid carers in the borough practical and emotional help. If your relative's needs are mostly health needs, ask the ward or GP about NHS Continuing Healthcare, which the NHS page explains.

Setting up the home in Lewisham

Your relative's carer will need a private bedroom. In a Brockley conversion or a flat near the town centre that can be the tight part, so check it before the start date. Think too about the stairs, the bathroom and where a commode or hospital bed might go if one is needed.

Breaks and nights with a live-in carer

Live-in carers sleep at the house, so someone is near at night, but they are not up all night. Each day they need a break, and they need their sleep to stay well. If your relative is often awake, unsettled or calling out after dark, tell us at the assessment and we can talk through night support honestly.

Funding and the cost of live-in care in Lewisham

The weekly figure depends on how much help is needed, couples care and any dementia or nurse-led care. See paying for care and live-in care costs.

Care staff for services in Lewisham

Our REC-affiliated staffing team also supplies NMC-registered nurses and support workers to care homes and NHS teams in south-east London; see staffing services.

Areas of Lewisham we cover for live-in care

We arrange live-in care at home across the whole borough and the surrounding SE postcodes, including:

• Blackheath
• Catford
• Deptford
• Brockley
• Ladywell
• Hither Green
• Lee Green
• Forest Hill
• Sydenham
• New Cross
• Crofton Park
• Downham