Statement of Purpose

With the approval of the service user and under the supervision of the company’s manager, the care worker attends to the domestic, personal care, rehabilitation and social needs of the service user, aiming to create an environment in which the service user can achieve and maintain maximum independence in their own home. Our services include support to families.

Please note: the tasks will vary, depending on the needs of the individual service user.

Personal Care:

Personal care involves the performing of tasks that the service user is unable to perform themselves without assistance, the lack of which would result in significant risk of substantial harm or deterioration in quality of life. Personal care is limited to what might be provided by a competent and caring relative, able to respond to emotional as well as physical needs, where no clinical intervention or invasive procedures or attention are required, and as part of an overall person centred careplan.

Examples of personal care include:

• Helping service user in/out of bed.

• Helping service user to dress/undress.

• Helping service user to eat/feed them.

• Attend to personal hygiene, including help with toileting/ emptying commodes.

• Routine hair care.

• Arranging & undertaking necessary travel.

• Incontinence laundry.

• Oral hygiene.

The aforementioned tasks are not intended to be comprehensive. All tasks will be agreed with the manager on the person centred careplan and will also be defined and agreed as either domestic or personal care.

Personal care does NOT include:

• Administration of drugs by injection.

• Application of dressings.

• Responsibility of catheter care.

• Supervision of specialist medical treatment.

• Nail trimming unless qualified.

Domestic Care:

Domestic care tasks are those that are broadly concerned with cleaning and assistance with daily living tasks but excluding physical care for the service user.

Examples of some of these tasks are as follows:

• Plan & undertake domestic tasks to assist service user to maintain cleanliness of home.

• Vacuuming, cleaning or washing floors.

• Cleaning baths, sinks and toilets.

• Cooking in absence of a meal service or where special dietary needs may be necessary.

• Shopping for food or other household essentials, accompanied by service user.

• Shopping for food or other household essentials without service user.

• Washing by hand (or machine), drying/ironing of household laundry.

• Bed making or changing.

• Paying household bills, budgeting & banking (with manager’s authorisation).

• Collecting prescriptions or pensions in compliance with current policies/procedures.

Social Activities:

• To encourage & enable service users to access social facilities, i.e. sports/ leisure clubs etc.

• To encourage & enable service users to access educational/ employment opportunities.

• To encouragement service users to maintain social and/ or family contacts & relationships.

• To encourage service users to maintain attendance for outpatient/day services etc.

• Rehabilitation.

• Motivate service users to maintain careplan as agreed by involved professionals & services.

• To help with the development of household management skills including advising on nutrition, cooking & budgeting. This would normally be required for service users being discharged from institutional or hospital care.

Care Support:

DMD Medway Ltd aims to provide a service to compliment formal and informal care being provided for service users which includes families and their children.

This may include any or all of the above tasks as well as night-sitting or respite care.

On-Call Service:

DMD Medway Ltd provides an On-Call service for evenings and weekends which is manned by a senior staff member and this is all provided 7 days a week. The On-Call officer will be able to deal with any emergency situations that may arise after office hours.

DMD Medway Ltd can also be first respondents to service users who have dispersed alarm from the local authority, of required.

The services we provide are for the following clients group:

• Elderly (Adults aged 60+)

• People with learning difficulties/Autism

• People with Dementia

• Adults with Terminal Illnesses

• Adults who are ill (other than Terminal Illness)

As we cover a wide range of services, we have procedures and guidelines to ensure that everyone gets the high quality of service we provide.

As a Company, we recognize that certain individuals need assistance and support to remain in their own homes. We aim to provide these in a manner that preserves the independence, dignity, choice and individuality of our Clients with due consideration to the level of risks.

• To assist those who need help because of extreme frailty, disability or illness to live as comfortable and independent a life as possible.

• To facilitate the discharge of patients from hospital following periods of acute medical care at the earliest possible time.

• To assess individual needs in full consultation with the Client, his or her family/friends and other relevant services, and to provide a service which is fully integrated with the wider network of support available to that Client.

• To provide a service which is sufficiently flexible to respond quickly to emergencies and, as far as possible, prevent the need for residential care.

• To provide an on-call system, with at least one senior member of staff.

• To ensure that Staff involved in the service are sufficiently trained and supported to enable them to provide adequately the objectives of the Company.

• To construct a person-centered careplan in full consultation with the service user, with the aim being to provide a service that is outcome based in empowering the service user to achieve independence within their home.

• To promote the welfare and wellbeing of the individual service user receiving the service.

• To keep under review - and to respond to - the changing needs of the service user in an appropriate way in consultation with the service user and relevant services.

• DMD Medway Ltd also aims to provide a service which, as far as possible, meets the individual needs and which takes full account of, and is sensitive to, the race, religion and cultural background of Clients.

• There are no circumstances at all in which DMD Medway Ltd will EVER accept its service users being shouted at, humiliated by words or actions, verbally, sexually or emotionally abused, bullied or intimidated, scorned or laughed at because of illness, disability, lifestyle or personal characteristics. DMD Medway Ltd will not countenance any behaviour which intentionally, or unintentionally, erodes or demises a person’s self-esteem, contentment and human dignity. By the same token, the Care Worker/Service User relationships are two-way, and Care Workers also have the right to be treated with the same respect.