Dementia Care
Support built around what somebody can still do, in the surroundings that help them keep doing it.
Familiarity is not sentimental. It is the thing that works.
Dementia is not one condition and it does not follow one path. Alzheimer disease, vascular dementia, Lewy body, frontotemporal, mixed. What they have in common is that memory, judgement, language and daily living get harder over time, and that the person in front of you is still entirely themselves underneath it.
The single most useful thing anybody can do is keep the world around them recognisable. Same house, same furniture in the same places, same routine, same faces. Somebody who can make a cup of tea in their own kitchen often cannot make one in an unfamiliar kitchen, and that is not because the ability has gone. It is because the cues have. This is why we push hard for people to stay at home, and why we work as hard as the rota allows to send the same small group of carers rather than whoever is free.
Our carers are trained to work with what a person can still do rather than around it. That means allowing the extra ten minutes so somebody can do their own buttons, rather than doing the buttons for them because it is quicker. It means not correcting or arguing when somebody is somewhere else in time, because winning that argument costs them dignity and gains nothing.
It also means being honest with families about what is happening. Dementia changes, and a care package that fitted six months ago often does not fit now. We reassess rather than waiting for a crisis to force the conversation.
Dementia is one of the service user bands within our CQC registration. We were registered on 17 March 2025 and have not yet been inspected.
This is likely right if
- Someone has had a dementia diagnosis and daily life is getting harder
- A family carer is managing but the strain is showing
- Familiar surroundings are clearly doing more good than a move would
- Support is needed with washing, dressing, meals or medication
- Nights have become unsettled and the household is not sleeping
Something else may fit better if
- The need is now primarily nursing, which requires a registered nurse
- Memory problems have not been assessed at all, in which case start with the GP
How our carers work with somebody living with dementia
Small things, done consistently. Almost none of this is dramatic and all of it matters.
The same faces
A stranger in the house is frightening when you cannot place them. Keeping the carer group small is the most practical thing we can do, and we protect it on the rota.
Working at their pace
Allowing the time for somebody to do a task themselves, badly and slowly, rather than doing it for them quickly. Every ability used is an ability kept a bit longer.
Not correcting
If somebody is expecting their mother, we do not tell them their mother died in 1987. We sit with where they are. Being right is not worth what it costs them.
Keeping the shape of the day
Meals, washing and bed at the same times, in the same order. Routine carries people through a lot of confusion.
Watching for the physical
Sudden confusion is very often a urine infection or dehydration rather than the dementia progressing. Carers who see the same person daily catch that early, and we act on it the same day.
Telling the family
Written notes after every visit, and a phone call when something has changed. Families should not be finding out at a review that things have moved on.
What is included, and what is not
Set out plainly so there is nothing to discover later. Anything not listed here can still be discussed, and often arranged.
Included as standard
- A care plan written around the person history, habits and preferences, not just their tasks
- Carers trained in dementia aware practice before working alone
- The smallest consistent carer group the rota can sustain
- Medication support recorded electronically at the point of administration
- Notes after every visit that family with access can read
- Reassessment when the picture changes rather than only on a schedule
- Support at home or within our supported accommodation
Arranged separately
- Nursing tasks that require a registered nurse
- Diagnosis, medication reviews and clinical decisions, which sit with the GP or memory service
- Residential dementia nursing placements
From first call to first visit
Most families ring us at the point where something has just gone wrong. That is a fine time to ring, and so is well before it.
Tell us what has changed
Often the trigger is a fall, a wandering episode, or a family carer reaching the end of what they can manage. Whatever it is, describe it plainly.
Assessment at home
We look at the person, the house and the risks, and we ask about the life behind the diagnosis. Their work, their family, their music, what they hate.
A plan you agree
Written down, shown to you and to the person where they can take part, changed where it is wrong.
Start, then keep checking
Introductions rather than strangers. A six week review, then regular ones, and an unscheduled one whenever things shift.
How this is paid for
Dementia care at home is funded the same way as any other homecare: privately, through the local authority after a care needs assessment, through a Direct Payment, or through NHS Continuing Healthcare where the need is primarily a health need.
It is worth knowing that a diagnosis of dementia does not by itself qualify somebody for NHS funding, and a great many families are told otherwise. What matters is the nature and complexity of the need. We will tell you honestly where we think you stand and who to ask.
Read the full guide to fundingWhat families ask us about this
Will the same carer come each time?
The same small group, protected on the rota as far as we can. Consistency matters more in dementia than in almost any other kind of care, because a familiar face is the difference between a calm morning and a frightening one. No honest provider can promise one single carer forever, and we will not pretend otherwise.
Should we move them into a care home?
Sometimes, eventually. But a move takes away the cues that a person is using to function, and abilities often fall away sharply afterwards. Our starting position is to keep somebody at home for as long as home is genuinely working, and to say so honestly when it stops working.
What if they refuse care?
Common, and rarely about the care itself. Usually it is about not wanting a stranger in the house or not accepting that help is needed. We introduce carers gradually rather than sending someone cold, and we work with what the person will accept rather than forcing a plan on them.
They get very unsettled in the evening. Can you help?
Yes. Late afternoon and evening agitation is extremely common and there is a lot that can be done about it: the timing of visits, light, noise, activity earlier in the day, who is present. It goes in the plan as its own thing rather than being treated as just part of the condition.
Do your carers have dementia training?
Yes, before they work alone, and it is refreshed. Training here is delivered through iHASCO alongside our own induction and supervision.
Can you support somebody in supported accommodation instead?
Yes. Where staying at home is not workable, our supported living properties have staff on site around the clock, private furnished rooms and a sensory room. It is a middle option between home and residential care that a lot of families do not know exists.
How do we know what happened while we were not there?
Notes are written after every visit and family members given access can read them. If something has changed we ring you rather than leaving it in a file.
Services that often go together
Live In Care
A trained carer moves into the home and is there day and night, so that moving out of it never has to be the answer.
Read moreCarer Support and Respite
Planned breaks, from a few hours to a few weeks, for the person who has been doing this without stopping.
Read moreHomecare and Personal Care
Support in your own home, from half an hour a day to round the clock, built around the way you already live.
Read moreIf something has changed, tell us
Whether the diagnosis was last week or three years ago, a conversation costs nothing and often produces options nobody had mentioned.
Emergency placements are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.