Changing the Perception of Homecare for People with Muscular Dystrophy by Ben Selby, Managing Director of Right at Home South Cheshire

Having worked in community and home care services for 15 years I’m truly excited to have now set up my own care company, Right at Home South Cheshire. We are a home care provider based in Crewe, and the way we operate is very different to the vast majority of home care services.

My main motivation for starting the company was based on a poor experience with my Grandad when he needed home care. Unfortunately, what he experienced was irregular times; short visits;

Carers were often strangers, not well trained, and they were numerous. Not surprisingly, home care didn’t work for him so we ensure we don’t make any of those mistakes. Our key differences are:

• Carers are always introduced to Clients
• We match our Carers to our Clients using one page profiles
• We keep the number of Carers visiting as low as possible
• Preferred minimum visit time of 1 Hour
• Our clients choose their times, and those times are regular
• We provide our Carers with an excellent baseline Induction, followed by specialist training when it is needed (more info below)

I stumbled across the NeuroMuscular Centre in 2016 whilst doing some market research prior to starting Right at Home, and was really struck by everyone I met and the culture of the place just felt amazing. Having spoken to a number of the staff and many of the visitors who come to the centre for physio, support, and to socialise it became apparent to me that there was a real lack of confidence in home care companies to provide care and support services.

This is why we have started to work with staff at the NeuroMuscular Centre to work towards having a team of staff who we can confidently call neuromuscular specialists. So far we have worked with Physios at the centre to deliver a specialised training session to a group of our Carers, covering many key areas including:

• An introduction to Muscular Dystrophy; the different types and how they affect the individual
• Specific Moving and Handling techniques
• Basic Physiotherapy techniques
• Oral hygiene and mouth suctioning
• An introduction to gastrostomy tubes
• Releasing air from the stomach
• Ventilator mask and head gear

We are now building a library of resources at our office, where Carers can pop in and continue to build and develop their knowledge. We know there is so much to learn but we are hungry for knowledge and we have a group of Carers who really want to become specialists.

If you’d like to know more or if you wish to arrange a no obligation, free care consultation, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Kirsty or Ben on 01270 257347 or email southcheshire@rightathomeuk.com