Home Care in Hounslow

Yes, we provide home care in the London Borough of Hounslow, but we are honest about how. Our office is in Lewisham, more than an hour away by train, so the care we can always arrange here is live-in care, where a carer moves into the home. Regular visiting care depends on whether we have carers living near you, so call and we will tell you plainly what we can staff before anything is agreed.

Can a carer visit every day in Hounslow?

Sometimes. From Lewisham High Street, Chiswick is roughly an hour to 70 minutes by Southeastern and then the District line or South Western Railway. Hounslow town centre, Isleworth and Feltham are more like 75 to 90 minutes via Waterloo. Nobody can do that journey several times a day and give good care at the end of it, so daily visits only work where we have a carer who lives in or near the borough.

That is why we ask for your postcode first. A morning call in W4, near Turnham Green, is a different question from a lunchtime visit in TW14 near Hatton Cross. Whatever the answer, you get it before the assessment, not after you have built a week around it.

What a visiting carer does

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

Visits cover washing and dressing, prompting or giving medication, meals, laundry and keeping the house safe underfoot. A visit can also be company and fresh air: Osterley Park, Syon Park, Gunnersbury Park and the River Crane walks are close to much of the borough, and a slow walk with someone steady at your elbow counts as care. For heavier needs we also provide complex care and palliative care, usually as live-in support given the distance.

East of the borough and west of it

Hounslow changes as you travel from the river towards Heathrow, and so does the practical side of care.

Chiswick, Brentford and Isleworth

Here the older housing is Victorian and Georgian terraces, many split into flats with steep shared stairs. Those stairs make hoists and stairlifts awkward, and a first-floor bathroom with a bath can be the thing that ends independent washing. Brentford also has a growing number of riverside and Great West Road apartment towers, where a working lift and step-free access matter as much as the care. Much of this end of the borough is in controlled parking zones.

Osterley, Heston, Cranford, Feltham, Hanworth and Bedfont

Further west the streets are mostly 1930s and post-war semis and short terraces. These homes often have room for a downstairs bathroom adaptation and a spare bedroom for a live-in carer, and much of the on-street parking is free. Cranford and parts of Bedfont sit under the Heathrow flight paths, which is worth mentioning at the assessment if noise unsettles someone living with dementia.

Coming home from West Middlesex or Charing Cross

Most Hounslow residents are treated at West Middlesex University Hospital on Twickenham Road, Isleworth, run by Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Discharges that need support are planned jointly by hospital, community health and council staff. In Chiswick, people are often treated at Charing Cross Hospital, run by Imperial College Healthcare, and some families in Cranford use Hillingdon Hospital. Mental health inpatients are usually at the Lakeside unit on the West Middlesex site.

Wherever the discharge comes from, call us while it is still being planned. Care put together on the day someone leaves the ward is the kind that falls apart. Given the distance, the dependable answer for a Hounslow discharge is often a live-in carer for the first weeks. See how our hospital discharge support works.

Asking Hounslow Council for an assessment

You can arrange care with us privately, but it is worth knowing what the council might fund. Every new enquiry goes to Hounslow's Adult Social Care First Contact Team, which decides whether to give advice or arrange a care needs assessment. You can start online from the council's request support page or ring 020 8583 3100 (Monday to Thursday 9am to 5pm, Friday until 4.45pm). Free independent advocacy is available for anyone who finds the process hard.

If the council agrees you have eligible needs, you can take the money as a direct payment and use it to pay an agency such as us. The council's Direct Payments Team (020 8583 3051) explains how.

How much does home care cost in Hounslow?

We give a written figure after the free assessment, based on what is actually needed, because a price given over the phone is a guess. If the council arranges care, a financial assessment decides your contribution. Hounslow's guide to paying for care says you will usually pay the full cost with savings or assets of £23,250 or more. Where needs are mainly health needs, NHS Continuing Healthcare may pay instead. Our guide to paying for care in London covers both.

Local help between visits

Age UK Hounslow, at Southville Community Centre in Feltham (020 8560 6969), offers information and advice, befriending and foot care. Its Vintage Club runs Monday to Wednesday for older people who manage their own personal care, and it holds a free Dementia Station there every Tuesday. The Alzheimer's Society holds dementia cafes in Hounslow Central, at the Danehurst Centre in Brentford and at Bristol Court in Feltham. Healthwatch Hounslow takes feedback on local health and care services.

What we can help with in Hounslow

• 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