Live-in Care in Harefield

Yes, we provide live-in care in Harefield. A carer moves into your home, takes a spare bedroom and supports you day to day under a written care plan, and the arrangement starts with a free home assessment. In a village with no rail station this far from our Lewisham office, it is usually the most dependable kind of care we can offer.

How a carer gets to Harefield, and how often

The journey is the reason live-in care suits Harefield. A visiting carer would make it several times a day; a live-in carer travels in once when a placement begins and again at each changeover, and we plan those days in advance. There are two routes in:

1. Via Uxbridge. The Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines end at Uxbridge, and the U9 bus runs from Uxbridge station through the village, stopping at Harefield Library, and on to Harefield Hospital.
2. Via Denham. A carer on a Chiltern Railways train can get off at Denham and take the 331, which crosses the canal at Broadwater Lock and comes up into the village by The Green. The same route continues to Mount Vernon Hospital and Northwood station.

Most Hillingdon residential roads are free to park on, so if a son or daughter drives the carer in from the station, parking outside is rarely a problem; check the signs if your road has permit bays.

What does live-in care look like after surgery at Harefield Hospital?

Harefield Hospital, the heart and lung centre on Hill End Road, is run by Royal Brompton and Harefield, part of Guy's and St Thomas'. For someone who lives in the village, it is just up the road, which makes the weeks after an operation easier to organise. The hospital team will give instructions on lifting, movement, wound care and medicines. A live-in carer works to those instructions: help in and out of bed and the shower, meals, a medication routine kept to time, short walks as the team advises, and someone in the house overnight in case help is needed.

Because the carer is there all day, they notice changes early and follow the hospital's advice on who to call. We review the plan with you as recovery goes on, and the placement can end once it has done its job. Talk to us before the admission if you can, and read the hospital's own Harefield Hospital information. Our hospital discharge page explains how we prepare a home.

An emergency or general admission is more likely to mean Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge, and the same approach applies there.

Cottage, council house or detached house

Harefield's homes vary more than most of the borough's, and each type raises a different question for live-in care.

• The older cottages in the village centre may have a second bedroom that is only just big enough. A single bed, a chest of drawers and some quiet is the minimum. Steep, turning stairs can rule out a straight stairlift, so ground-floor living is sometimes the safer plan.
• Post-war council houses usually have two or three bedrooms and a straight staircase, which suits both the carer's room and a stairlift. Tenants should ask their landlord about adaptations as well as the council's occupational therapists.
• Larger detached houses on the edges of the village have the space; a monitor or pendant alarm helps the carer hear a call at night from a distant bedroom.

A one-bedroom flat leaves the carer nowhere to sleep, so live-in care is off the table there. Visiting care this far out depends on whether we have a carer free for your times, which our home care in Harefield page is honest about.

The carer's break: the green, the library and the canal

Your live-in carer has a protected break every day, and in Harefield a lot of it can be spent outdoors. Harefield Village Green on Rickmansworth Road is a common of four and a half acres with a pond, a war memorial and an outdoor gym. Harefield Library on Park Lane is the indoor option on a wet day. For a longer walk, the canal towpath and the flooded gravel pits of the Colne Valley are on the village's western edge.

The library is also somewhere the carer can take the person they look after: it hosts one of the council's free dementia groups. We agree at the assessment who covers the break each day, whether that is a relative, a neighbour or a short sit-in.

Care towards the end of life

Michael Sobell House, the inpatient hospice run by Harlington Hospice, is on the Mount Vernon Hospital site in Northwood, which the 331 links directly to Harefield. Many people would rather stay in their own home, and a live-in carer can make that possible, working alongside the GP, district nurses and the hospice's community teams. Harlington Hospice runs a 24-hour clinical advice line for Hillingdon on 020 3824 1268. See our palliative care page for how we approach this.

Paying for it

Hillingdon Council assesses needs and means, and can pay a personal budget as a direct payment. NHS Continuing Healthcare may fund care where needs are mainly health needs, which can include fast-track funding at the end of life. Our live-in care in Hillingdon page sets out the council route, and live-in care explains the arrangement. You get a written quote once the free assessment is done.

What we can help with in Harefield

• 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