Understanding the right service for you or your loved one is, of course, incredibly important. Guardian Angel Carers is on hand to find a suitable time for a confidential chat, where we can discuss your needs and explain why we think one care service may be more suitable than another.
In the meantime, we’ve shared some guidance to clarify the differences between domiciliary care and specialist care. Both are services provided by qualified, professional carers, but with distinct contrasts in terms of the tasks and expertise your appointed CareAngel may require.
What Is Domiciliary Care and How Does it Work?
Visiting care or domiciliary care is all about helping clients live safely in the comfort of their own homes. Home care is often seen as an alternative to a residential care home or an extended hospital stay. This is especially true for older adults, those recovering from an injury who need practical support, or individuals living independently at home who require help with day-to-day chores.
Although the exact care tasks carried out can vary between families, depending on how and where we can make life easier, these often include:
- Personal care, helping with washing and dressing
- Help around the home, such as cleaning and doing laundry
- Preparing meals and snacks or checking that a care client has had enough to drink
Domiciliary care is a great way to ensure families have extra support, keeping a loved one well looked after. Carers often become firm friends with the people they assist, offering companionship and keeping isolation at bay.
When we organise domiciliary care, we work closely with both care recipients and their families, which ensures we can structure our visits in the best way. This could involve one or two visits a week, extended care slots on specific days, or increasing amounts of in-person home-based care as needed.
How Is Specialist Home Care Different From Domiciliary Care?
Specialist care services are equally diverse. They are designed to help people with mental health needs, complex health conditions, or learning disabilities stay safe and well. We appoint CareAngels with sufficient knowledge and training to offer the level of support that specialist home care clients expect.
Many of the tasks involved in specialist care replicate those offered through a domiciliary care service, but with supplementary tasks and support provided by carers with advanced clinical skills. That might involve:
- Monitoring complex conditions and providing regular updates if there are any indications that a client’s condition or health is declining or changing.
- Assisting with medication administration, operating devices used for feeding, mobility, and communication.
- Symptom management, keeping clients comfortable and free of pain, particularly when providing palliative care for people with a life-limiting or ongoing condition, or in end-of-life care.
It’s important to clarify that specialist care can be structured in any way that benefits the care recipient and improves their quality of life or relieves the burden of care from family caregivers.
For instance, respite care ensures carers coordinate their support with the assistance provided by loved ones, working closely to maintain consistent schedules and organise seamless handovers between family members and professional carers.
Other high-demand types of care relate to specific conditions, such as dementia care or rehabilitative care for people who might have suffered a brain injury or need help recovering their mobility and communication skills after a stroke.
What Different Types of Specialist Care Services Do We Offer?
Across the Guardian Angel Carers network, we offer a broad range of specialist care and support services, which are known to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and help people remain independent who might otherwise have felt resigned to moving into residential care.
Prospective care clients can discover more about the care services offered by each of our territories, but we’ve recapped some of the primary aspects below:
- Detailed care planning enables us to outline the exact nature and impacts of a chronic illness, disability, or diagnosis, or the reason specialist care is required, such as helping a person recover from surgery or regain their confidence after an injury.
- Medication management is wholly personalised, ensuring specialist carers help each care recipient take all prescribed medications at the right times and doses, and record this to enable family members and other health professionals involved in the person’s care to monitor their well-being.
- Condition-specific assistance, checking on vital signs, and remaining vigilant for any changes to the health or welfare of the person. Specialist carers can also assist with feeding tubes, oxygen devices and other medical equipment.
All home care we provide is tailored to the individual or family, and we take great care to match CareAngels with care recipients to ensure they share similar interests or hobbies that enhance the enjoyment of care visits.
In specialist care, this remains relevant, but we also consider specialist care professionals with particular expertise in the client’s health condition or needs, ensuring they receive the very best care possible.
When Might Specialist Care Services Be More Appropriate Than Domiciliary Care?
Specialist care services may be more suited to the needs of people living in their own homes who require additional expertise to protect their independence and ensure they have the practical and emotional support needed to continue their daily routines.
However, in other cases, clients may begin with visiting or domiciliary care, noting that there may come a point in a progressive condition or cognitive health concern where care visits need to increase, or where they would benefit from more advanced specialist care.
Families making decisions between residential nursing facilities and at-home support generally look for specialist care, recognising that a person with complex care needs will require a care professional with more extensive experience. However, they can always contact the Guardian Angel Carers team for more personalised advice.