Live-in Care in Ickenham

Yes, we arrange live-in care in Ickenham. A carer moves into a spare bedroom in your home and supports you, or both of you, through the day to a written care plan agreed after a free assessment with Jackie, our registered manager. Most Ickenham houses have the room for it, which is why live-in care is the arrangement we can offer here with most confidence.

What about the husband or wife who has been doing the caring?

Many Ickenham households are owner-occupiers who have been in the same house for decades, and in a long marriage one partner can slide into being the other's full-time carer without anyone quite deciding it. Live-in care lets both of them stay in the house. The carer takes the hands-on work for the partner who needs it, such as washing, dressing and help on the stairs, and the plan can also give the other partner lighter help: meals, shopping, a lift to their own appointments, or an afternoon to themselves.

That partner is also entitled to a carer's assessment of their own from Hillingdon Council. Carers Trust Hillingdon, at 126 High Street in Uxbridge, offers carers one-to-one advice and benefits checks, and the U1 and U10 buses run there from Ickenham. One limit applies: if either partner needs two people to move them safely, a single live-in carer cannot do it alone, and we set out the options at the assessment.

Bedrooms, bungalows and the upstairs bathroom

The carer needs a room of their own with a proper bed, somewhere to keep their things and a door that closes. In Ickenham's interwar semis and detached houses that is rarely a problem: the second or third bedroom is usually there, often still with a grown-up child's furniture in it.

The harder question is the bathroom. In a typical two-storey Ickenham house it is upstairs, and the plan has to answer how the person gets there safely, at night as well as in the day. The common answers are a stairlift, a commode or a bed brought downstairs for a while, or a ground-floor wet room for the longer term. The council's occupational therapy service assesses for equipment and adaptations. In the bungalows, which Ickenham has plenty of, a hoist and a profiling bed usually fit without much moving of furniture, with the carer's room on the same floor.

If the home is a one-bedroom flat or retirement apartment, a live-in carer cannot stay. Visiting care is then the route, subject to a carer being free for your times; see our home care in Ickenham page.

Handover day at Ickenham station

When one live-in carer finishes a placement and the next arrives, there is a handover in the house, so the new carer meets you with the outgoing one still there. The station has both the Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines, and the U10 and 278 buses stop outside it. A carer coming on the Central line or a Chiltern train gets off at West Ruislip and takes the U1, U10 or 278 into Ickenham.

Where the carer goes on their break

Every live-in carer has a protected daily break, agreed at the assessment along with who covers it. In Ickenham the carer has good places to go within a short walk. Swakeleys Park on Swakeleys Drive has a lake, with the River Pinn running through and the old Swakeleys House beyond it. Ickenham Library, off Long Lane in Community Close, is somewhere quiet to read or use a computer.

Some of these places are for the person being cared for too. The Compass Theatre on Glebe Avenue is wheelchair accessible, has an induction loop, and offers free tickets to essential carers on request. The council also runs monthly daytime discos there for people living with dementia, with a free carer ticket booked alongside each paid one.

Coming home from Hillingdon Hospital

Hillingdon Hospital, on Pield Heath Road, is close to Ickenham, and the U1 runs from the Ickenham Pump stop to the hospital's own stop. The short distance helps: family can get between the ward and the house to prepare the spare room, and once the person is home a live-in carer can take them back to follow-up appointments by bus or taxi. Call us while the ward is still planning the discharge; our hospital discharge page explains how we prepare.

Funding in a few lines

For an Ickenham address, Hillingdon Council's needs assessment and financial assessment apply, and a personal budget can be taken as a direct payment. When care is at home, the value of the house is not counted in the council's means test. If needs are mainly health needs, ask about NHS Continuing Healthcare. The detail is on our live-in care in Hillingdon page, and our live-in care page explains how the arrangement works. We give a written quote after the free assessment.

What we can help with in Ickenham

• 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