Respite Care for Carers in Greenwich

Your first call: Greenwich Carers Centre in Charlton

Greenwich Carers Centre is the borough's charity for unpaid carers, based at The Stables, 76 Hornfair Road, by Charlton Park (0300 300 2233). It has advisers for benefits and form filling, dementia support, one-to-one and telephone support, and a centre with a café and garden where carers and the people they look after are both welcome. Its regular groups include a dementia-friendly afternoon twice a month and a knit and natter on Wednesdays.

It also helps carers write a Carer's Contingency Plan, which we come back to below. Using the centre does not stop you using paid respite as well.

How do I get respite care through Royal Greenwich?

Through a carer's assessment. It looks at how caring affects your health, work and life, and what would help, and the council is clear that it is a conversation, not a test, and does not look at your finances. You can request a carer's assessment by phoning the Contact Assessment Team on 020 8921 2304 or emailing aops.contact.officers@royalgreenwich.gov.uk. If the person you care for has a social worker or care coordinator at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, for example through mental health services, the council asks you to go through them.

Most carers' assessments are done alongside the cared-for person's own needs assessment, though you can ask for one separately. If you are eligible, the council invites you to build a support plan and personal budget, and you can combine it with the cared-for person's plan.

The council's page on breaks and sitting services lists what that can lead to: short breaks of a few hours or overnight, day care schemes, sitting services, befriending, residential short stays, and adult placement schemes where the person stays with an approved carer. There may be a small charge for overnight stays. Where the council funds a break as a direct payment, you can use it to book respite at home with an agency like us.

Is respite care free in Greenwich?

Partly. The carer's assessment costs nothing, and the council says it does not look at your finances. Care the council arranges for the person you look after is means-tested through their own financial assessment: Royal Greenwich says anyone with more than £23,250 in savings or assets pays the full cost. Privately arranged respite is paid in full. We give a written figure after our home assessment; our guide to paying for care in London explains the rest.

Breaks we can cover at home

• A regular afternoon or evening. The same carer each week, with personal care and medication support if needed, so you can work, see friends or simply sleep.
• A sit-in for a hospital appointment of your own, a wedding or a night out.
• A live-in short stay of a few days or a fortnight, with a carer moving into the spare room while you go away. Many Eltham and New Eltham homes have the room this needs.

Regular visits are most straightforward in Greenwich town, Charlton, Kidbrooke, Eltham, Woolwich, Plumstead and Shooters Hill, all a short train, DLR or car journey from Lewisham. Thamesmead and the far side of Abbey Wood take forty to fifty minutes by public transport, so for anything more than an occasional visit there, a live-in stay often works better. Ask, and we will tell you what we can staff.

When the person you look after has dementia

Dementia support in Greenwich is run by South East London Mind, not Alzheimer's Society. Its Greenwich Dementia Support service (020 3198 2222) offers advice, support planning and workshops for carers, and a memory café from 1pm to 3pm on the first Thursday of each month, downstairs at Greenwich Carers Centre. For respite at home, consistency matters most: we aim to send the same carer each time so the visit becomes familiar. See our dementia care page.

Short stays at our supported living homes

We run three supported living homes that can take respite stays, in Whitton, Kingston upon Thames and Uxbridge. All three are on the far side of London from Greenwich. Kingston is the nearest, roughly an hour by car via the South Circular, or around an hour and a half by train. For most Greenwich families, respite at home will be more practical, but if a stay away is what the person needs, ask us about availability.

What we can help with in Greenwich

• Regular visits so you can rest
• Live-in cover while you are away
• Planned breaks booked ahead
• Cover if the main carer is unwell
• Dementia-aware respite
• Short stays in our supported living homes
• Help with the carers' assessment route
• A care plan the family agrees