‘I rang a care helpline and found a care home in two weeks’

With over 16,000 care homes in the UK offering diverse types of care in vastly different settings, looking for the right care home can be daunting and overwhelming.

carehome.co.uk, the UK’s biggest reviews site for care homes, has over 350,000 reviews of care homes giving those looking for care a valuable insight into what the home is really like. It also has a free care helpline where people can speak to one of the team who can help them find a care home to suit their needs.

Care home helpline

The care helpline run by carehome.co.uk is for people who are time-poor and are not sure what exactly they are looking for.

Staff on the helpline will trawl through thousands of care homes for you and filter out all the ones that are not relevant as care homes can differ hugely. Some of them offer a small homely environment with a patio area and a pub, while others are larger, offering more hotel-style accommodation with landscaped gardens and a cinema.

Adrian recently rang the care helpline looking for respite care in a care home for his 82-year-old father. He currently lives at home and gets home care a few times a week from Bluebird Care. 

“My dad needs help dressing and preparing food. He can walk up short flights of stairs but he needs someone there incase he falls so you can’t leave him alone for extended periods. 

‘We wanted to find some respite care’

“We wanted to find some respite care for my dad so he could have a change of scenery and meet some different people and my mum who is 79 could have a break.”

Adrian told his friend he was looking for respite care in a care home for his dad and she recommended carehome.co.uk.

“I went on the site and started looking for care homes in south London. But hundreds of them came up and then I saw there was a free care helpline.

“I rang and spoke to Paulina and explained the situation to her and what kind of care we were looking for.

“She talked me through the different kinds of care available. I told her about my dad’s care needs and his cognitive abilities and level of mobility and we discussed price ranges.”

What was really helpful for Adrian was it “started refining some of the filters to see which care homes would not be suitable for him. It made me have a much clearer picture of what we were looking for.

‘We received a shortlist of care homes’

“Paulina offered to draw up a shortlist of care homes that would be suitable for him. She sent us a list of six care homes and talked to me about what to look for such as CQC (Care Quality Commission) reports.

“The care helpline made our search much more manageable and narrowed the search down. I really appreciated being able to talk to someone about it. It meant it was one of those things you have to do that gets done pretty quickly. It went from something that would have taken ages to something that came to a conclusion very fast. 

‘The care helpline made the whole process easier and quicker’

“Due to ringing the care helpline, the whole process only took a couple of weeks – from starting the search and ringing the care helpline and getting the shortlist to calling the care homes and going to visit them. We went from talking about it to visiting care home places a couple of weeks later.”

Adrian did foresee that searching for a care home would be hard. But he envisaged it being “more manageable and that the care system would be easier to navigate”.

His dad went in for respite care during the Christmas period and he got involved in some carol singing which he really enjoyed as well as a music session, according to Adrian.

He had his meals in the dining hall and the World Cup was on so he watched some of the football matches with the other residents in the lounge. I felt confident he was well looked after and everyone at the care home was very pleasant and helpful. We had the feeling he was in safe hands.

‘My experience ringing the care helpline was very good’

“My dad went in for a week’s respite and it ended up being very successful. He had a great time there and my mum really enjoyed her break. It was a big success.”

Adrian found the care helpline was invaluable. “Paulina really knew what she was talking about and I felt she was knowledgeable and attentive. My experience ringing the care helpline was very good.”

‘We really take our time and listen to the person on the line’

Paulina Frisby, team leader for the care helpline says: “Choosing the right care home can be a minefield and this is where we can help people. We are able to find suitable residential, nursing, respite, convalescent, and palliative care for anyone that is of an older age that may be living with dementia, the effects after a stroke or brain injury or have disabilities.

“We support them and their loved ones by providing information and finding suitable care homes that will help give them back their quality of life.

“The care helpline team really takes its time and listens to the person on the line, taking all their worries and feelings into consideration and we try to help and support wherever we can. We are here to make some sort of difference in people’s lives, no matter how big or small.”

Call the care helpline on 01488 501103 from 9am to 5pm.

(standard call charges apply)

For advice on finding a care home go to Finding A Care Home in 2023: Questions to ask – carehome.co.uk advice