What is a Direct Short Care Break?
This is a way of providing support for carers of older people to enable them to continue their caring role. If you provide regular help and support to enable an older relative or friend to live safely and independently to home Social Services can offer a range of support. One of the ways for us to provide this support is by enabling the person you care for to have a short stay in a residential or nursing home. The Direct Short Care Breaks scheme allows you to make arrangements direct with a home for them to provide short stay accommodation and appropriate care for the person usually care for at home.
How does the scheme work?
To decide if short term breaks are the best way of meeting your needs a member of staff will meet with you and the person you care for. Together we talk about the difficulties which arise and ways in which help can be provided. This is called an assessment of need. If Direct Short Care Breaks are a way of meeting your needs then the number of nights of care for one year will be agreed. As a carer you will then be given a letter for each 7-day short break you are assessed to receive. These are known as Letters of Agreement. Each letter will set out:
- how much needs to be contributed towards each break
- the level of care agreed.
You can then arrange a break direct with a home chosen from the list of homes registered to provide Direct Care Short Breaks.
Where can the short care breaks be taken?
There are several residential and nursing homes in Bournemouth able to offer a short break away from home in a comfortable environment where people's care needs can be met. Homes able to cater for Direct Short Care Breaks are registered with Social Services. We will give you information about the range of homes including details of:
- the name, address and telephone numbers of the homes together with the name of the person to contact
- the type of home
- the levels of care they can provide.
You can then select home/s that meet the needs of the person you care for, visit them to view the facilities and choose one that meets the requirements. For each short break you will need to contact the home direct to make sure they are able to offer accommodation for the period in question. To confirm the break simply complete and sign the areas indicated on a letter of agreement and pass this to the home.
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