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Layla is 15 years old and suffers from a rare syndrome which results in severe developmental delay. We need a female carer who is flexible and trustworthy, who can help us out with her personal care and occupying her for a number of hours each week at the beginnings and ends of the days. We also need her carer to stay a bit longer a couple of nights a week to enable me and my wife to get out for an hour or two.
We think to work, it would need to be someone who lives near Pinner where we live.
Layla can walk, but she cannot talk and requires most things done for her. She is not toilet trained. She requires support with personal care, eating, and just needs someone to occupy her to keep her happy.
She is a very affectionate and responsive child and has quite good comprehension of simple things, can follow simple instructions e.g. To put something in the bin, go and get a book etc. She communicates using sounds and gestures and can normally make her mind known to someone who knows her. She does use a few hand signs and at school she uses a communication book with pictures to point to. She does not display any behavioural difficulties.
We currently have a carer supplied by the local authority for one hour at the beginning and end of the day Monday to Friday. The local authority have granted us additional funds to hire a carer as we really need more help. My wife is not a strong person and my two elder daughters who support us a good deal are going to be married and leave home in the next few months.
The below gives an outline of the sort of thing we have in mind. Please note this is an attempt to put down the detail, we will just have to see how and whether things work out in practice. We may find that we need more support than this, or that the hours/days aren’t quite right. There will also need to be quite a bit of flexibility as things may vary from week to week, but the below is what we would expect as ‘standard’.
We also understand that we will have to do some fitting around what the carer’s other commitments may be so it will be a two way thing.
- Monday to Friday mornings
o Help with getting up, personal care and giving breakfast – 8am for 1 to 1 ½ hours
- Monday to Friday afternoons:
o Help with showering and getting ready for bed 4pm for 1 hour
o 3 days a week extend above to give dinner and occupy her until 6:30pm – additional 1 ½ hours these days – possibly Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
o 2 days a week babysit during the evening – stay till 830- 9pm (Layla goes to bed around 7pm) – perhaps Tuesday and Friday.
- Saturday mornings
o Help with getting up, personal care and giving breakfast – 8am for 1 to 1 ½ hours
- Saturday afternoons:
o Help with showering and getting ready for bed 5pm for 1 hour
- Sunday afternoons (mornings not required)
o Help with occupying, then showering, getting ready for bed and staying with her while we go out – 3pm to 630pm
We would consider employing two different carers if one person cant do all the hours, for example if one does the mornings and another the afternoon/evenings.