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HOME CARE IN THE USA

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HOME CARE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM


Introduction

Home care aims to enable people to remain at home rather than use residential or nursing care. Care workers visit service users in their own home and help with daily tasks such as getting up, going to bed, dressing, toileting, personal hygiene, some household tasks, shopping, cooking and supervision of medication.

Home Care Workers

Care workers are trained in the use of hoists, manual handling, food hygiene and first aid, where these form part of the care required. Although there is no entry-level qualification, many care workers study for a vocational qualification in care. A range of specialist training is also required to provide care to some user groups, such as people with learning disabilities or dementia.

Home Care Providers

Homecare is purchased by the service user directly from independent home care agencies or as part of the statutory responsibility of social services departments of local authorities who either provide care by their own employees or commission services from independent agencies. Care is usually provided once or twice a day with the aim of keeping frail or disabled people healthy and independent though can extend to full-time help by a Live-in Nurse or carer.

United Kingdom Home Care Association

Domiciliary care providers in the UK are able to join the United Kingdom Homecare Association (UKHCA) , which is the professional association of domiciliary care providers in the independent, voluntary, not for profit and statutory sectors. The Association represents the views of over 1,540 home care providers, each of which agrees to abide by the UKHCA Code of Practice . UKHCA is often a point of contact for members of the public who wish to contact home care providers in their local area .

Statutory Regulation

Home care agencies are regulated by statutory bodies in three of the four home nations. The regulator's function is to ensure that home care agencies work within the applicable legislation:

''England''



''Wales''



''Scotland''



''Northern Ireland''

  • There is no statutory regulation of domiciliary care at the time of writing (July 2005) although draft legislation is currently under consideration.



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