Home Care in Catford

Yes, we provide home care in Catford. Our office is on Lewisham High Street, two stops up the Hayes line from Catford Bridge, so carers can reach SE6 for regular visits, subject to having someone free at the times you need. Care begins with a free assessment in the person's home and a written care plan agreed with them and the family.

Where do I ask Lewisham Council for help with care in Catford?

Catford is where the council actually sits. Laurence House, at 1 Catford Road beside the Broadway Theatre, is the place for face-to-face enquiries about adult social care, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Most people start without going in, though. The council's assessment page links to a ten-minute online wellbeing check that tells you whether the person is likely to be eligible. After that you can ask for a full assessment, which the council says can take up to six weeks. You can also phone 020 8314 7777 or email gateway@lewisham.gov.uk.

If the council finds eligible needs, it will set a personal budget and then look at income and savings to decide what the person pays. That budget can be taken as a direct payment and spent on an agency such as ours. Anyone funding their own care gets a written quote from us after our assessment.

Homes either side of the South Circular

The A205 cuts Catford in half and, with the A21, forms the one-way system round the town centre. The housing on either side is mixed in a way that matters for care.

• Victorian and Edwardian terraces run off Bromley Road, Brownhill Road and towards the southern end of the Corbett Estate. Many are still whole houses, which means one steep staircase and a bathroom upstairs. Getting to the bathroom safely is usually the first thing we look at.
• Milford Towers, the early-1970s blocks behind the Catford Centre, and other post-war flats depend on the lifts. If a lift is out, a morning visit still happens, but getting someone out to an appointment may not, and we plan for that.
• Newer flats near the two stations usually have lifts and level showers, which makes washing and moving around much easier, but rarely a spare bedroom.

Where equipment such as a hoist, perching stool or rails would make personal care safer, we will say so at the assessment and suggest asking the council for an occupational therapy assessment.

Getting to and from Catford

Catford station is on Thameslink's Catford Loop, and Catford Bridge, a short walk away, has Southeastern Hayes line trains through Ladywell and Lewisham. Buses are plentiful: Catford bus garage is the terminus for the 47, 171 and 199, and the 160 ends at Catford Bridge. For a carer coming from our office this is one of the easier parts of the borough to reach.

University Hospital Lewisham is a few minutes north, so most Catford residents are discharged from there. If the ward suggests a care package, ask whether the council's short-term enablement applies first, and tell us while the discharge is still being planned so we can check what we can cover once it ends. Families who need to sort the paperwork in person can do it at Laurence House, five minutes' walk from Catford Bridge. More on hospital discharge support.

Live-in care and respite in SE6

A whole terraced house in Catford usually has the spare bedroom a live-in carer needs, and for a couple it keeps both people at home with one carer. A flat in a block often does not, in which case a full day of visits is the alternative. If a husband, wife or adult child is doing most of the caring, we can give them a regular afternoon off or cover a week away through respite care; the council's carers' service, run by Imago, can also carry out a carer's assessment.

What we can help with in Catford

• Personal care, washing and dressing
• Medication prompting and support
• Meals, laundry and home help
• Companionship and getting out
• Dementia care at home
• Support after a hospital stay
• Short breaks for family carers
• Live-in care when needs grow