HAVE you thought about having a private carer to help you?

Do you know that they exist and how to go about getting help from a private carer, rather than from Social Services or an agency?

In the last few years there are a lot more private carers or private agencies being established, due to a shortage of carers within agencies.

To fill that void, neighbours, friends, ex or retired nurses/carers etc are clubbing together to form little agencies.

It is predicted that in 25 years’ time, one-in-four of us will be over 65, but even before then, some of us will need some form of care/help with day-to-day living, so that we can remain in our homes and live independently.

So where do you start?

Usually the best way is to ask friends, neighbours, health care professionals like district nurses or chiropodists.  There is always someone that can point you in the right direction.

Some local care providers include:

Cherry Tree Care Services, Rebecca Cheriton 07496 003627

Meadow Care, Polly Pidgeon 07368 236910

Nicky Knight 07841 412633

Karen Cousins 07894 307796.

All of the above cover Crediton and surrounding areas and have many years of experience in different care settings, but please look out for the various articles, etc, printed in the “Crediton Courier”.

All of the above would be happy to take your call and answer your questions and put your mind at ease.

The benefits of having a private carer is that you can choose who you have and, to some extent, the times to suit you (depending on availability).

They will be a lot cheaper as they don’t have the overheads that an agency has, so you could get more care for your money.

Private carers will provide the same quality of care and services like personal care, shopping, taking you to appointments, enabling, staying at your house overnight, the list is endless.

Sally Endacott-Phillips

Meadow Care