Who supported us?

I’ve talked about how we supported Mum to care for Dad and about how we supported each other as a family.
Now I’ll begin to tell you how we managed to sustain this…it’s about who supported us.

Dad was receiving a Home Care Package 4 (HCP 4) which is the highest level of coordinated community support a client can receive via the Commonwealth subsidised Home Care Packages Program.
Having a diagnosis of dementia also allowed for an additional financial supplement to the package, the dementia and cognition supplement.

Consumer directed care. 

Our package provider was Prescare and they were exceptional and truly delivered consumer directed care for us.

When Dad first commenced with the package, which was February 2017, he utilised the funding for lawn mowing, household cleaning, washing the dog, pool maintenance and meals.
Tasks that he was no longer able to manage himself.

After that 3rd stroke in July we needed to modify the package to include a carer, as Dad was so functionally dependent after this stroke.

We initially had a carer coming to my parent’s house 7 days each week, for 4 hours every afternoon.
The carer would sit with Dad each afternoon while Mum took a nap or went out and did the grocery shopping. The carer also encouraged Dad to do his physiotherapy exercises (while he was still able to) and she showered Dad just before she went home at 4pm.

Finding the right carer.

Finding the right carer for Dad was a challenge, as Dad was not only cognitively impaired, but hearing impaired too.
We certainly went through a period of trial and error until we found the perfect carers for Dad!
The universe gifted us Jodi and Kath and they both became like family to us.

They listened to Dad telling the same stories over and over again.
They watched Andre Rieu DVDs over and over again.
They genuinely cared for Dad. And for Mum.
And their sincerity was without doubt.

Jodi and Kath kept us going.