What Does a Live-in Carer Do?

Live-in Care Meaning

Live-in care services entail a fully-trained healthcare professional living with you in the comfort of your own home and offering support in your familiar surroundings. Your carer is always available to support you in your everyday life, including support with medication management, personal care tasks, and tending to your dietary needs.

Live-in care covers a wide range of support services that meet an individual’s social and medical needs and brings peace of mind to their whole family. The role of a live-in carer is to maximise the quality of life of people with complex care needs while encouraging their independence and social integration safely.

Key Duties and Responsibilities of a Live-in Carer

Live-in care providers help individuals with complex care needs continue living in a familiar, comfortable environment where they can retain their independence. With a dedicated support worker by your side, you can lead a fulfilling life and take an active role in the local community.

The main duties of live-in carers include the following:

Personal care - helping with everyday routines, such as maintaining oral hygiene, bathing, toileting, shaving, and dressing
Household chores - preparing meals, doing laundry, cleaning the house
Medical care - administering medication, incontinence care, mobility support, dietary and nutrition support
Companionship - social care and helping people connect with their community

What a Live-in Carer Can't Help With

Depending on the care service, there are particular tasks your live-in carer won’t be able to assist you with. While a professional live-in carer can help people with medication management, individuals with particularly complex care needs may require additional support from a doctor or medical professionals. In addition to that, live-in carers need to consult and work with specialists when it comes to other forms of clinical monitoring.

Live-in Carer Qualifications

A live-in carer must be responsible, dedicated and prepared to handle emergencies or challenging behaviour at any time of the day. Live-in carers also need previous experience and extensive training to prepare for this role and become familiar with the essential duties before they can help care for people.

Training encompasses skills from basic first aid to assisting people with complex care needs, such as Alzheimer’s disease, learning disabilities and Autism. Therefore, aspiring carers need to be prepared to attend courses and programs to provide people with quality support. At Leaf Complex Care, we provide our support workers with extensive training, ensuring all of our live-in carers are trained in PBS and PROACT-SCIPr-, guaranteeing compassionate and proactive care.

Working Hours of Live-in Carers

Although a live-in carer lives within the individual’s home, the working hours usually range from six to ten hours a day. The main appeal of live-in care is that the support worker is available for any necessary support during the day, and can provide support when required at night. Usually, carers take at least one two-hour break during their working day.

Care at Night

Waking night care services offer support for various emergency situations that may arise during the night. A waking night carer is here to meet whatever needs the individual may have throughout the night, such as help in changing positions or administering prescribed medications.

Benefits of Working as a Live-in Carer

Live-in carers have a special opportunity to bond with the people they serve through various daily activities, such as companionship, preparing food, and providing support. Many carers enjoy being able to provide reliable and compassionate support.

The main benefits of working as a live-in carer include:

Who Can Benefit from a Live-in Carer?

Nowadays, more and more individuals choose to live-in care instead of residential care facilities. Individuals with complex care needs can significantly benefit from keeping their own tenancy and staying close to their loved ones on their pathway to recovery. Many groups of people can benefit from live-in care services, including the following:

Elderly people
People with learning disabilities
Individuals with mental health challenges
People with complex care needs
Autistic people
People in need of long-term support (including dementia and Parkinson's disease)

Find Your Ideal Live-in Carer with Leaf Complex Care

At Leaf Complex Care, we provide person-centred live-in care services. Our specialist support workers take a bespoke approach to care for people with complex care needs. We help the people we serve on their pathway to independence by prioritising their privacy, dignity, and personal boundaries.

We assist individuals with complex care needs while encouraging as much independence as possible in their day-to-day lives, and always tailor our care to the people we serve.

If you need a quality one-to-one care provider for yourself or a loved one with complex care needs, Leaf Complex Care is the right place for you. Our live-in carers deliver CQC-regulated at-home support for children and adults with complex care needs in Bristol, Slough, Somerset and the Midlands.