Home Care

We know the difference that the right support, at the right time, from the right people can make. More than just a scheduled visit, our Professional Carers, matched to each client, deliver personalised care and support, tailored to enhance the quality of life for our clients.

The success of our care teams hinges on the strong, trusting relationships we build with our clients, by getting to know everyone we provide care for. Our professional carers are recruited in line with our values and are passionate about empowering people to live longer, better lives in their own home. Seamlessly fitting into our clients lives, our carers deliver a wide range of care/support, including:

• All aspects of personal care, carried out respecting clients’ wishes and in line with privacy and dignity standards.
• Medication administration and ordering, backed up by technology, including eMARs (Electronic Medication Administration Records), for increased efficiency and ease.
• Hydration and nutrition support, to keep clients eating, drinking, and feeling well.
• Daily health reviews, via our innovative Cera Care App.
• Family App available to the customer, their family, and linked professionals (with consent), enabling peace of mind with access to rosters, visit notes, and health status.
• Enabling access to the local community, building friendships and relationships outside the house. We work closely with local services and community groups to know where our clients can find services they need, or places that match their interests.
• Signposting family members/friends to carer support, in recognition of the vital roles they play.
• Emotional support - read this letter about the support we offered one family as their loved one came to the end of their life.

We ensure that everyone can have care from Cera, through high-quality training delivered to our Professional Carers by our internal Nurse Tutors for a range of more complex health needs, such as PEG feeds, Oxygen, and Stoma Bags.

The health and wellbeing of our customers is our priority, with our in-house, innovative technology working to ‘Predict and Prevent’, ensuring early intervention, thereby reducing the likelihood of a serious health risk and/or hospital stay, alleviating pressure on our health colleagues. Our ‘Predict and Prevent’ technology (implemented as standard) includes:

Healthier Lives technology, using data collected from visits and machine-learning AI and algorithms to predict and prevent negative outcomes. This can predict a customer’s risk of hospitalisation 7 days in advance with 80% accuracy, and help reduce high concern issues by 60%+ in 6 weeks Falls Prevention technology, powered by predictive AI and informed through our Enhanced Falls Risk Assessment, to proactively identify those most at risk by analysing daily care data and categorising service users into low, moderate, and high-risk groups, with targeted interventions. Through this approach, we can pinpoint 97% of falls, and predict falls in the next 7 days with 83% accuracy. We have achieved a 20% reduction in fall-related incidents, demonstrating the potential for significant reductions in hospitalisations/re-hospitalisations and enhanced well-being.

Life Changing Care

We are proud to have changed “Doreen’s” life for the better, thanks to two of our exceptional Professional Carers. Prior to our involvement, Doreen had resisted support/care from services, experiencing undiagnosed mental health challenges and a form of Learning Disability. We took Doreen on as a customer when she was experiencing low self-esteem and self-neglect, shown through a lack of personal hygiene, an untidy home, and excessive smoking. She was also being financially exploited by the people around her. Within 2 months of our care, Doreen’s life had changed dramatically, thanks to the tireless work of our dedicated Professional Carers. We take the time to match our carers and customers, through personality, life experiences, and skills, which allows our carers to build trusting relationships with our customers, enabling life-changing care as seen with Doreen.

Our Professional Carers’ commitment to Doreen included their sourcing of free clothes and furniture outside of their working hours. We worked with Doreen to clean up her house, and to focus on herself, with Doreen working up to showering regularly and taking pride in her appearance. Doreen’s Social Worker hadn’t seen her laugh in years - and with us, she laughed, danced, and sang. She even gave up smoking. We also encouraged her to seek advice on exploitation, empowering Doreen to empower herself.

Doreen sadly passed away due to her ongoing health conditions, but is well-remembered by our team. Her 2 Professional Carers were shortlisted for the Leeds Annual Quality and Care Awards, and made the final 3 shortlisted in all Adult Social Care Services for the “Established Care Worker of the Year” Award.

Building Relationships

“Richard” was unwell and required medical attention, but was reluctant to attend his local hospital. Our carers attempted to source an emergency GP, but one wasn’t available, and so paramedics (999) were called. Despite the paramedics stating that hospital care was required, Richard wanted to wait to go into hospital until the next day. Our Professional Carer was very concerned about this, and so contacted our branch, asked for her calls to be managed by other members of the team, and encouraged Richard to go into hospital with the paramedics, agreeing to meet him there and remain with him throughout.

Due to our carer’s good relationship with Richard, he agreed, and our carer met him at the hospital and remained with him until 10pm, throughout his examination, x-ray, and doctor’s check-up.

Thanks to our carer’s persuasion and flexibility (supported by our branch team), Richard was able to receive the hospital care he needed with limited distress.

Enabling Independence

“Henry”, is a 78-year-old gentleman who was an existing customer of ours when diagnosed with a progressive neurological disorder (similar to Parkinson’s) following a series of falls in the local community.

Due to his declining health, it was suggested to Henry that he may want to move into a full-time care setting as he had no family to help with his care. Henry was distressed at this idea, as he did not want to leave his home, and did not want to leave our care team.

As Henry retains full capacity, we called a meeting on behalf of Henry with his allocated Social Worker and Neurological Specialist to assess Henry’s future care needs, and whether these could be met at home. In line with Henry’s wishes, this was agreed.

We set up a short-term contract with a local befriending service, who visited Henry weekly to support shopping and accessing the local community. Henry, however, felt he was losing his independence through this service, and so we looked for alternative ways for Henry to access the community safely, but independently.

Henry now accesses the local community weekly, through a recurring booking with the local taxi firm. Assisted by the same driver each week, who picks Henry up, assists with his shopping, and drops him home, Henry is able to maintain his independence, while keeping safe. The taxi firm also takes Henry to and from GP/hospital appointments, enabling him to continue to attend these without additional care, in line with his wishes.

To ensure he always has the staples in, we supported Henry to set up a contract with a local milk delivery service, who also deliver milk, bread, cheese, and eggs to him weekly.

Recently, following a review, Henry has received additional care hours, to incorporate domestic support, helping him to keep his environment clean, tidy, and safe for him to navigate. With our care, and these established community links, Henry has been able to continue living at home, retain his independence, and live well.