Our Southend-on-Sea Home Care Reviews

I’d been looking for a befriending/companionship service for my mum – on and off – for some 2 years. Four attempts with other agencies/individuals faded to nothing: despite my having been signposted to them by health professionals or Local Authority-commissioned wellbeing services. Mum was already receiving self-funded domiciliary care visits 4 times a day but they weren’t able to take mum out as such, and I felt she would benefit greatly from that: breaking social isolation, managing her anxiety and helping her rebuild her confidence.
I found Helping Hands from an internet search and submitted an online enquiry. Within a few working days, someone got in touch to find out more about what we were looking for and a meeting was set up with myself, mum and a Helping Hands Care co-ordinator. The assessment was thorough. Mum was given time and space to voice her concerns about the things worrying her, and I was given space and time to talk about what I believed the right befriending service could help mum to achieve. We decided to go ahead with a 2 hour visit per week. Mum wasn’t convinced she needed it but I’d worked in the world of care and support commissioning and was convinced it could make a significant difference to her and take pressure off of her family after a rough 2.5 years during which her health had declined to the point the health system was clearly treating her as a complex case.
Mum has now been receiving weekly visits for around 5 months and everything I’d hoped for is happening. Mum has formed a great relationship with her befriender and often chooses to go out to the shops with her for a top-up food shop. I still feel the need to emphasise to mum that she’s buying 2 hours of time that she can use how she wants (within the confines of the service terms and conditions). So she can go to the shops with her befriender on a good day or send the befriender shopping on a bad day, which is a level of flexibility that I believe is really important. I still make suggestions to mum about how she can use her time with her befriender, but I believe she’s getting the hang of it and she’s definitely benefiting from it. She’s used the time to start sorting through her wardrobe; sorting through kitchen cupboards; pick up a click and collect order (something she’d not know how to do); go for a top-up food shop; make a shopping list and place a food order by phone (mum is hard of hearing and has dementia); and she’s given herself permission to just sit and have a cup of tea and chat with her befriender as well. I’ve now met her befriender, and I can see why mum raves about her: she’s super-reassuring and she communicates with myself and my brother on mums’ behalf when needed. I’m very much looking forward to encouraging mum to come up with ideas of what she might do over Spring and Summer during those 2 hours as I know how much she enjoys being out and about in nature. I would absolutely recommend Helping Hands. We’re in the South, an hour from London, and I would think the hourly rate charged reflects both that, and the quality of the service received. No, it’s not cheap for 2 hours, but the impact of that 2 hours is cummulative and lasts way beyond the weekly session and that actually makes it great value for money in my opinion.