Live-in Care in Limehouse

Yes, we arrange live-in care in Limehouse, E14, for one person or for a couple sharing a home. A trained carer moves into a spare bedroom and helps with personal care, medication, cooking and getting out, with a protected break every day and a full night's rest. It starts with a free assessment at home, then a written care plan that covers both partners where both need support.

Two people, one carer

A couple in a lift-served flat by the Basin, or in a terrace near Narrow Street, can keep the home they share if one carer takes on the hands-on work. Where one partner has dementia, Parkinson's or a stroke and the other is managing but tired, the carer gives the first full personal care and helps the second with the shopping up from Commercial Road, cooking, appointments and the heavy jobs, so the healthier partner goes back to being a husband or wife, not a full-time carer.

We write each partner's needs into the care plan separately, because they change at different speeds. If both come to need two people for transfers, or help several times every night, we will tell you that one carer is no longer enough and talk about what would be.

If one of you goes into hospital

A Limehouse admission normally means the Royal London in Whitechapel. With a couple, a hospital stay leaves two people needing support: the one on the ward, and the one at home who may not be able to manage alone. The live-in carer can keep supporting the partner at home while the other is in hospital, by agreement with you, and then be part of the planning for the return. The council's hospital social work team at the Royal London handles discharges for Tower Hamlets residents; tell them early that a live-in carer is already in the home.

Does a Limehouse flat have space for a live-in carer?

It depends very much on which Limehouse you live in.

• Warehouse conversions and riverside blocks around Narrow Street and the Basin usually have lifts and level access, which suits a wheelchair, a hoist or a hospital bed. Many are two-bedroom flats where the second room has become a study or guest room; it needs to become the carer's bedroom. Check the lease and tell the managing agent who is living there, so the carer can be given a fob.
• Council estates and walk-up blocks either side of Commercial Road are often one floor of a stairwell block with no lift. A carer copes with stairs, but bulky equipment has to come up them too, and getting a couple out together takes planning.
• A one-bedroom flat cannot take a live-in carer. For a couple, a combination of visiting care in Limehouse for one partner and support for the other may work, or the council can discuss extra care housing.

Breaks by the Basin, and further along the DLR

The live-in carer's daily break is their own time, and the couple need cover for it, from family or from us. Limehouse gives the carer somewhere to go that isn't just round the shops. Limehouse Basin, off Goodhart Place by the DLR station, is the old dock where the Regent's Canal and the Limehouse Cut, London's oldest canal, meet the Thames, with cafés along its edge. For a quiet indoor hour, Idea Store Canary Wharf is a short DLR ride away.

The Basin also works for the couple, together: a carer can walk with one partner and push the other's wheelchair round the water, then stop for a coffee. Hawksmoor's St Anne's church on Commercial Road is close by for anyone who wants to keep going to services.

Paying for care for two

If you fund care yourselves, we quote in writing after assessing both of you, because the price depends on what each partner needs. For council funding, each partner who needs care has their own Care Act assessment through Tower Hamlets Connect. Our Tower Hamlets live-in care page covers the council route and NHS Continuing Healthcare, and live-in care in London explains rotas and time off.

What we can help with in Limehouse

• 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