Home Care and Live-in Care in Lee, SE12

Yes. We provide home care in Lee, from a morning visit to help someone wash and dress up to a carer who lives in. Lee is a short trip from our Lewisham High Street office along the A20, so visiting care is often realistic here, as long as a carer is free at the times you need. A free home assessment comes first, then a written care plan.

A quiet district with room to spare

Lee is mostly houses: Victorian and Edwardian terraces and semis off Lee High Road and Burnt Ash Hill, interwar houses further south towards Grove Park, and some post-war council estates. Many people here have lived in the same house for decades, and many of those houses now have a bedroom nobody uses. That spare room is what makes live-in care possible.

In a Lee semi, the carer's room is often the back bedroom that was once a child's, and the front room downstairs can become a bedroom later if the stairs get too much. For a couple where one partner needs help with washing and the stairs and the other is managing but tiring, one carer can cover the personal care, the cooking and the housework, so the other can be a husband or wife again, not a full-time carer.

What does live-in care involve in a Lee house?

The carer needs their own bedroom, somewhere to keep food, internet access if possible, and a daily break. We plan who covers that break at the assessment. Stairs are the main question in these houses. We look at whether a stairlift would fit and whether a downstairs room could become a bedroom. If a hoist or hospital bed may be needed later, we check the space for it now.

If one or two visits a day is enough for now, that works too. Many families start with personal care visits and move to live-in care later. The house and the family stay the same.

Trains, buses and short parking hours

Lee station on Burnt Ash Hill is on Southeastern's Dartford loop, also called the Sidcup line, with trains to Charing Cross and Cannon Street. Buses 202, 261 and 273 stop at the station, and other routes, including the 122, 178 and 321, serve Lee High Road and Lee Green. Parking is easier than in central Lewisham. According to the council's zone timetable, the Lee, Lee Green and Manor House zones only operate from 10am to 12 noon on weekdays. A late-morning visit by car may still need a carers' permit, which is free with a GP letter.

Hospitals, and which council covers you

The border with Greenwich runs through the Lee Green crossroads, by the Leegate centre. Addresses on the Lewisham side go to Lewisham Adult Social Care (020 8314 7777), and some streets to the east come under Greenwich. Hospital care is usually at University Hospital Lewisham, although people on the eastern side are sometimes treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich. Both are run by the same NHS trust. Wherever the hospital is, the council that assesses your relative for care after discharge is the one they pay council tax to. Our Lewisham home care page explains the assessment, direct payments and help for family carers.

A break for the partner at home

When the main carer is a husband or wife, the strain builds slowly and is easy to miss. Respite care can cover a regular half day or a week while they rest or visit family, by visits or with a live-in carer staying a short while. Lewisham's carers' service, run by Imago, can arrange a carer's assessment.

What we can help with in Lee

• 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