Our carers are primarily a companion and can provide you with a range of services such as domiciliary care which comprises personal care, cooking and light domestic work. Depending on your fitness and wishes the carer can also accompany you to appointments and be a companion on days out and holidays. Your carer can also increase your freedom by driving a suitable car which either you can provide or we can provide and insure for you both.

Some clients need extra care and sometimes continuous care. In these cases, a carer or a team of carers will give the closest support necessary in order to allow you to receive care at home in a safe and comfortable environment with all the required care provided by the dedicated team.

We understand that it can be worrying when a new carer comes to live with you in your home but soon you will be close companions. If you choose, carers can learn lots of personal details about you such as where you keep your spare house keys or who your friends are. Trust is absolutely essential for a successful relationship between client and carer.

Fulfilling relationships are always supported by good communication. Here are some useful tips:

• Think about your routines and preferred ways of doing things. The quicker your carer can learn your routine, the less you will need to instruct them. Help your carer to help you.

• Be clear in your instructions and listen to and acknowledge a carer’s point of view. Two way communication always works best

• On a regular basis give both positive and any negative feedback to encourage a good working relationship.

How you manage your carers is a personal choice and over time you will choose the best method that works for you. The Cleeve Link Live-in management team is always on hand to help with details such as level of care, cost, holiday and sickness cover, emergencies and personal relationships between client and carer.

We can work with you to determine what your needs are. For example, do you need help with washing and dressing and do you wish your carer to be a companion on days out? Personal compatibility is also extremely important and we seek to provide our live-in clients with a carer or team of carers that you will enjoy the company of. Many clients say that they have become good friends with their carers, enjoying new stories and learning about new cultures.

All of these things are important, and a comprehensive assessment of your needs helps us determine the level of carer and type of carer that would be most suitable.

In most cases, a dedicated carer will provide the service for up to 6 days a week with a relief carer coming in to cover for days off, holidays and any periods of sickness.

However, where high levels of personal care need to be provided, it may be that one carer will stay for 4 days and a second carer will work the other three days of each week.

The main carers would need to have a longer period of leave every 6 weeks when he or she would be away for a short period and then would return for another 6 weeks; helping to ensure as little disruption to routine as possible.

The beautiful Cleeve Hill Nursing Home based in Bishops Cleeve is the operational base for the Live-in care service. The service is available within a 35 mile radius of Cheltenham including Ledbury, Tewkesbury, Cirencester, Stow-on-the-Wold and Stroud. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have a long term need which you would like to discuss which is further a field.

In order to maintain the excellent quality of care steps are taken to ensure that we recruit the highest standard of nurses and personal assistants. Before we talk about the recruitment process, we feel that it is important to highlight that a good character and caring nature within the potential carer are important factors that we take into account. The carers spend a lot of time, both day and night, in the client’s home and it is important that the person they are caring for is totally at ease.

The carer is also carefully selected based on their past history with us, their qualifications and references (which will have been checked by us) and a Criminal Records Bureau check (CRB). Once this selection process has been successfully completed, a training programme is undertaken at Head Office which lasts until we are satisfied the carer is capable of taking on the assignment. During the training period, the carer will undergo evaluation testing to check proficiency levels and to start the process of carefully matching the carer’s qualifications, temperament and personal attributes with the client’s needs to ensure a successful relationship.