Ensure Care offers both palliative and end of life care. There is a subtle difference between the two: palliative is support for people with a condition that can’t be cured while end of life care supports those in the final stages of their illness.
Our highly trained carers work with people in all phases of their illness and to varying degrees – everything will be custom to our client’s specific situation. They can help with pain management and to alleviate any other distressing physical symptoms. We can also assist with personal care, including washing and continence care, as well as tasks within the home. We’ll help with whatever is needed, day or night.
Rather than simply lessening the physical symptoms, we make sure we care for all aspects of a person. Our carers will offer any emotional, spiritual or psychological support that might be needed during a highly emotional time. We understand that this situation hugely affects family and friends too, so we also extend this support to loved ones.
Our aim with this kind of care is to ensure that we help someone to have the very best quality of life possible, according to their own decisions and choices.
Waking Night Support
Ensure Care can also provide waking night support (slightly different to live-in care). Waking night support means a carer will be around during the night to support them with whatever needs they might have when sleeping. For example, people might need help getting up to use the toilet, need help controlling their pain or maybe even need some emotional support overnight. A dedicated carer will be there to provide whatever is needed during the night. As always, the carer will be fully trained in the needs of the client. Many people who are using our palliative care or end of life care services find waking night support very helpful and so do their families, who can relax knowing that their relative is being cared for overnight.
How Are Palliative Care and End of Life Care Different?
Palliative and end of life carers provide all the practical support that you would expect from carer, but can also help with their client’s emotional needs too. Sometimes people need help coming to terms with the shock of a sudden diagnosis or they might be struggling to cope with the life changes caused by their illness. Our carers are trained to help you talk about how you’re feeling so that you’re able to offload and release emotions. There’s often a lot to think about for families as well and it can be a time filled with worry and anxiety. If they want to, friends and family can also lean upon our carers for emotional support too.
Benefits of Palliative Care at Home
The biggest benefit of receiving palliative care in your home is keeping familiar surroundings that you know and love. Many people find that being surrounded by their own belongings in their own homes is a great comfort at a stressful time. Not moving somewhere new means there’s minimal disruption to the client and other household members too. Round-the-clock care means that any changes in condition can be responded to straight away.
We can arrange this type of care on a live-in basis, where a dedicated carer moves into the home to provide constant support, or on a visiting basis, where a carer visits once or throughout the day. If family are doing the bulk of the care and need a break, we can also offer respite care and can have one our qualified carers there within 24 hours.
For more information on the support we can provide, call us on 01926 431925.