Dementia Care Services at Future Care Group

Choosing a home for a person who lives with dementia depends on whether the person requires any Registered Nursing care or whether they can be supported in a home without nursing. Firstly, check out the homes brochure / website to make sure they are able to care for people living with dementia, then arrange a visit to the home. It helps to have a list of questions prepared prior to your visit that you can discuss with the homes management team. Making the decision to move someone into long term care is never an easy decision so you must be confident that the home is able to meet the individual needs of the person living with dementia, in an environment they would feel comfortable in.

The starting weekly fee for dementia care across the Group is £875

As dementia is a progressive condition it does mean that at some point the person living with dementia will find it increasingly difficult to live independently as dementia affects the persons ability to remember things, make rational decisions and cope with day-to-day activities of living. 

Placing a loved one into care is not an easy decision and can be very emotional for all concerned but if the person is unsafe at home and their day-to-day needs are becoming more difficult to meet, or their care is having a negative impact on their loved ones it could be time to consider long term care.

In the early stages of dementia, the person might be able to make their own decision to enter a care home, but as their condition declines the decision may be made by their loved ones. For you to be involved in making these decisions it will be necessary for you to have Lasting Power of Attorney, not just for health and wellbeing but for finances as well, so you might need to consider putting these in place as soon as possible. 

Everybody is different and it very much depends on how quickly the dementia develops and affects the persons ability to live independently with support from family and loved ones or through a community care package, however there will likely come a time when this approach will no longer benefit the person at which point, they may need to enter long term care. 

Supporting a person with dementia can be incredibly difficult as their condition will, over time gradually decline, but the most important factor will be to maintain a safe environment. The person living with dementia may not be able to identify what poses a risk to them so you will need to put in place actions to keep them safe. 

It is important to keep the person engaged in activities that they can manage and that they are interested in, but you might need to think about what measure you will need to put in place to maintain safety. 

It is important to keep the persons’ GP fully up to date with their condition as there might be help and support available from other healthcare professionals such as: Admiral Nurses, Occupational Therapists, dieticians an so on. 

When caring for someone who lives with dementia it is important for us to really get to know the resident, their likes and dislikes, their life story and history, their specific needs and wishes and then use this information to put together a suite of care plans that meet those individual needs. We want our family and friends to continue playing a big part of the person’s care and would like them to be as involved as possible. Our care does not just focus on physical needs but also on psychological, spiritual, and social needs as well, as we believe keeping our residents active and engaged greatly enhances their quality of life.  Our lifestyle teams use their knowledge of the resident’s life history to develop a bespoke activity programme to keep the residents as occupied as possible doing things they are interested in. 

Our dementia strategy is titled ‘life’ because with the right care and support people living with dementia can continue living a full and happy life. 

Person-centredness is about using our knowledge of the residents’ specific needs, interests, wishes and preferences to deliver care that is individual to the resident and to fully involve family and friends in that person’s life. 

Respite care, also known as short-term or short-stay care, is a temporary living arrangement for residents within one of our care homes across England. Everyone staying with us for a respite break will receive personalised care, tailored to their individual needs. They’ll have their own furnished room, be welcomed into the home and encouraged to take part in the life of the home and the many activities on offer. All of our care homes currently offer respite care for dementia. 

Depending on how much you have in savings and other assets, you may have to pay for all the care home costs yourself. This is determined by a financial assessment, known as a means test. The means test is carried out by your local council following a needs assessment.

The means test looks at your capital to see how much money and assets you have and how it will affect your care home fees.

Your local authority will look at things like the value of your home, private and state pensions, savings and interest earned from those savings as well as some benefits.

The savings threshold is different depending on where in the country you live, but if you have more than the upper capital limit, you must pay full care home fees.

If care is being funded by your local authority, but the cost of the care home exceeds this, a third party (such as a relative) can pay the remaining cost. This is known as a top up fee. This gives you the option of choosing a care home which is most suitable to your needs, rather than what you can afford.

The cost of dementia to the UK is currently £34.7 billion a year, which works out as an average annual cost of £32,250 per person with dementia.