Does anybody know what the average cost of a home nurse is?

industrialhorse

I am looking at bringing in somebody (well qualified nurse or carer) to lookafter my mother in the evening time between 5pm-10pm from Monday to Friday and possibly throughout the whole night. She will have family care at the weekend but down the line she may require nursing all week as she is in the early stages of dementia and also suffers with seizures at times.

Would anybody know where I should start with this i.e. where to look, cost, things to watch out for and so forth? any advice would be greatly appreciated

Oink

This may help:
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/health/health_services_for_older_people/home_care_packages_for_carers.html

Inspector Dhar

There are several companies who specialise in providing carers. Bluebird, Home Instead to name but 2. However, the charges are horrifically expensive. We availed of Home Instead for about 6 weeks for 24 hour care, and the weekly bill was in the region of €1,600. (You can claim tax back on this). This was just not financially sustainable. By asking around, and word of mouth, I sourced a wonderful alternative. Now my aunt has a Philippino lady who lives with her from Sunday evening till Friday afternoon. Myself and siblings/cousins pick up the slack at weekends. The lady, Sandra, prepares the meals, does the grocery shopping, light housework etc. She gets paid €500.00 per week. I hope this helps

industrialhorse

Inspector Dhar wrote: »

There are several companies who specialise in providing carers. Bluebird, Home Instead to name but 2. However, the charges are horrifically expensive. We availed of Home Instead for about 6 weeks for 24 hour care, and the weekly bill was in the region of €1,600. (You can claim tax back on this). This was just not financially sustainable. By asking around, and word of mouth, I sourced a wonderful alternative. Now my aunt has a Philippino lady who lives with her from Sunday evening till Friday afternoon. Myself and siblings/cousins pick up the slack at weekends. The lady, Sandra, prepares the meals, does the grocery shopping, light housework etc. She gets paid €500.00 per week. I hope this helps

Thanks for that info. Yeh I think that taking on a carer who is not attached to a professional service would be my best bet in order to keep the costs down and the Filipino nurses are very caring and generally laid back. One place got back to me with a quote this morning and although they seem to offer a range of care packages, none of them are realistically affordable. Thanks again:)

Inspector Dhar

Best of luck! You are starting off on a tough old road. I wish you well.:)