Live-in Care in Colliers Wood

Yes, we provide live-in care in Colliers Wood. A carer moves into the home, with a bedroom of their own, and supports the person through the day and is there overnight, following a written care plan agreed after a free assessment. In Colliers Wood the call often starts with a hospital stay, so this page starts there too.

From a ward at St George's to your own front door

St George's Hospital is the next stop up the Northern line, at Tooting Broadway, and it is the usual acute hospital for Colliers Wood. When a discharge date is being discussed, the ward will ask what support is in place at home. Merton Council's Hospital to Home Team provides short-term social care for residents leaving hospital and works with district nurses, therapists and the council's reablement service. Its duty worker is on 020 8545 3801.

Short-term visits help, but they leave long gaps, especially at night. Live-in care fills them: someone in the flat on the first evening home, who notices if the person is confused, not eating, or unsteady getting to the toilet, and can tell the GP or the family the same day. If you think that will be needed, ring us while the ward is still planning, not on the day of discharge, so we can do the assessment and tell you honestly whether we have a carer for that date. Our hospital discharge page explains how we fit in.

Flat or terrace: where would the carer sleep?

Colliers Wood has two very different kinds of home, and they suit live-in care differently.

• The newer flats and towers near the station. A lift and wide corridors make it easier to bring in a profiling bed, a commode or a wheelchair after a hospital stay, and level-access showers make personal care simpler. The limit is space. A two-bedroom flat can work if the second room becomes the carer's. A one-bedroom flat cannot: the carer can't sleep on the sofa. In that case, ask us about visiting care in Colliers Wood, which is more realistic here than in much of Merton.
• The Victorian and Edwardian terraces on the side roads. There is usually a spare back bedroom, but the bathroom tends to be upstairs. After a fall or an operation, a bed in the front room for a few weeks, with the carer upstairs within earshot, is a common way round it until the stairs are manageable again.

Where does the carer go on their break in Colliers Wood?

A live-in carer takes a protected break every day, at a time agreed in the plan. Colliers Wood Library, a minute's walk from the station, is a good place to spend it. It opened in 2018 with a lift and accessible toilet, and the council designed it as Merton's first dementia-friendly library, with advice from Alzheimer's Society. That also makes it somewhere the carer can take a person with dementia when they are on duty.

For fresh air, Wandle Park and Colliers Wood Recreation Ground are close by, and the riverside path runs along the Wandle to Merton Abbey Mills. The retail parks on Merantun Way are handy for the carer to do the household shop.

Younger adults and disability, not only old age

Live-in care is not only for older people. Our CQC registration covers adults under 65 and people with physical disabilities or sensory impairments, so a younger adult living with MS, a brain injury or sight loss can have a carer living in, as long as the home has the room. Merton Council's Leyton Road Centre in Colliers Wood is one of its day services for adults with learning disabilities, and Merton Centre for Independent Living (020 3397 3119), a user-led disabled people's organisation, gives independent information, advice and advocacy.

Paying for live-in care

We quote in writing after the assessment, once we know what the care involves. Council funding, the means test and direct payments are covered on our Merton live-in care page. After a hospital stay, if someone's needs are mainly health needs, ask the ward whether an NHS Continuing Healthcare checklist should be done before discharge. Our London live-in care page explains the arrangement in more detail.

What we can help with in Colliers Wood

• A carer living in, with their own room
• Care for one person or a couple
• Personal care through the day
• Medication support
• Cooking, housekeeping and laundry
• Dementia support at home
• Company, outings and appointments
• Cover arranged for the carer's breaks