Home Care in Honor Oak, SE23

Lewisham side, Southwark side

The station, the shopping parade on Honor Oak Park and most of the streets towards Forest Hill and Crofton Park are in Lewisham, with SE23 and SE4 postcodes. One Tree Hill is mostly in Southwark, and so are the SE22 streets on the far side of it towards Peckham Rye and East Dulwich. The boundary affects three things.

• Who assesses. Lewisham residents start with the council's online questionnaire on its assessment page or 020 8314 7777. Southwark residents refer to Southwark's Older People and Physical Disabilities team online or on 020 7525 3324.
• Who nurses. District nursing follows the GP. Lewisham's service, run by Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, takes patients registered with a Lewisham GP. With a Southwark GP, the practice refers to Southwark's community nurses.
• Who controls the parking. Lewisham's Honor Oak zone (HO) runs Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm; Southwark has its own permit rules.

Whichever council sends the council tax bill is the one to ask.

Houses from the 1780s to the 1980s

Some of the first large houses went up along Honor Oak Road from the 1780s. Victorian villas and terraces followed the railway, and there are council estates nearby. In the 1980s the architect Walter Segal worked with Lewisham Council on self-build schemes here, including Walters Way, where residents built their own timber-framed homes. Care at home looks different in each: a steep stair in a villa conversion, level rooms in a self-build house, a lift in an estate block. We look at the actual home at the first visit.

What a visit covers

• Personal care and getting up or to bed
• Medication support, shared with the GP and nurses
• Shopping on the Honor Oak Park parade, meals at home
• Company, including a gentle walk on the lower slopes of One Tree Hill
• Going with the person to hospital appointments on the 185

Trains, buses and the 185 to two hospitals

Honor Oak Park station has Overground Windrush line trains to Highbury and Islington, Crystal Palace and West Croydon, and Southern trains to London Bridge and Victoria. National Rail lists step-free access to all platforms, though some routes are long or steep ramps. The P4 stops at the station and runs direct to Lewisham, and the 171 and 172 stop nearby at Stondon Park. The 185 along Honor Oak Road runs one way to University Hospital Lewisham and the other to King's College Hospital on Denmark Hill, which matters on a border where either hospital may be involved.

One Tree Hill

One Tree Hill is home to the Oak of Honor, the tree that gave Honor Oak its name. The park is managed by Southwark Council. Its paths are steep near the top, so for many people with a carer the lower woodland paths are the realistic walk.

Help close by

For dementia, the council's Ladywell Dementia Day Service on Dressington Avenue, SE4, is a short bus ride north, and Sydenham Garden's Sow and Grow groups for early-stage dementia meet in SE23. For family carers on the Lewisham side, the council's drop-in hubs run on Tuesdays at the Ladywell Centre and at the Ignition Brewery on Sydenham Road. Imago, Lewisham's carers' service, is on 0300 373 5769.

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