Home Care in Croydon

How far our carers can realistically reach in Croydon

Our office is on Lewisham High Street, SE13. We have no base in Croydon, so it is fair to tell you how the journey works before you call. Central Croydon is roughly 40 to 50 minutes from us by public transport, by train through London Bridge to East Croydon, or on the Hayes line to Elmers End and then the tram. Norwood Junction, on the Overground's Windrush line, is one of the easier stops in the borough to reach from south-east London.

That puts the northern half of the borough within range for regular visits, subject to which carers are free: Thornton Heath, Norbury, South Norwood, Selhurst, Addiscombe and the town centre. The south is a different matter. Purley, Coulsdon and Sanderstead sit on the Surrey edge, and Selsdon and New Addington have no rail station at all, so from Lewisham they are an hour or more away. We will not take on a morning-and-evening package there unless we know it can be covered every day. For those areas, live-in care is usually the more dependable answer, because the carer lives in the house and does not travel each day.

What a visit can include

A visit is built around the parts of the day that have become hard: getting washed and dressed, a meal made and eaten, tablets taken at the right time, the bed changed, someone to talk to. Every visit follows the care plan written after the assessment, and it changes as needs change.

• Personal care
• Medication support
• Home help
• Companionship
• Sit-in service
• Dementia care

Converted flats in the north, steep drives in the south

Croydon's housing changes as you travel down the A23, and it shapes what care at home looks like. In Thornton Heath, Norbury and South Norwood, many Victorian and Edwardian terraces have been split into flats. An upstairs flat often means a steep internal staircase straight from the front door and a narrow hallway, which can rule out a standard stairlift and makes a hoist difficult to manoeuvre. A carer can help with the stairs, but where they are no longer safe it is worth asking about a bed downstairs or a move to a ground-floor room.

Around East and West Croydon, newer high-rise blocks have lifts and level bathrooms, but door entry systems and key safes need sorting out before the first visit. Further south, the interwar semis and detached houses of Purley, Sanderstead and Selsdon have more space, though often with front steps, sloping drives and hills that make getting out to the shops harder once someone stops driving. In any of these, Croydon Council can arrange an occupational therapy assessment for equipment through the same route as a care assessment.

How do I ask Croydon Council for a care assessment?

Croydon Council Adult Social Care takes requests through its online "request support for an adult" form. If you cannot use the form, phone 020 8726 6500. The assessment can take place at home, with a relative present if you wish, and it looks at what the person can and cannot manage, and whether their needs meet the Care Act eligibility rules. If they do, a financial assessment decides how much, if anything, the person pays towards their care.

Council-funded care can be taken as a direct payment and used to pay an agency like ours. In Croydon, support with setting up and managing a direct payment is provided by Kingston Centre for Independent Living (KCIL), on 020 8546 9603. If you are paying privately, you do not need to wait for the council: call us and we will arrange the home assessment. Our guide to paying for care in London explains the means test and NHS Continuing Healthcare.

Coming home from Croydon University Hospital

Most hospital stays for Croydon residents end at Croydon University Hospital on London Road in Thornton Heath, still known to many families by its old name, Mayday. It is run by Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, which also provides community services in the borough, within the NHS South West London Integrated Care Board area. Purley War Memorial Hospital is an outpatient site with no beds, so discharges in the south of the borough still come out of Thornton Heath.

If you want care at home after a stay, tell the ward and the discharge team early, and call us while the discharge is still being planned. That gives us time to assess, check which carers can cover the address, and tell you honestly whether we can meet the start date. A package put together on the day of discharge is the one most likely to go wrong. See how our hospital discharge support works.

Memory problems and dementia in Croydon

If you are worried about memory, the first step is the GP, who can refer to the Croydon Memory Service run by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Visiting care can sit alongside other help: Croydon Council runs its own dementia day services at Langley Oaks in South Croydon and at the Heavers Resource Centre on Selhurst Road in South Norwood, reached through the same 020 8726 6500 number, and Age UK Croydon runs the Memory Tree Café. Days at a centre and visits at home can be planned around each other. Our dementia care page explains how we approach it.

What we can help with in Croydon

• 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