Personal care
What is personal care?
Personal care is the support and supervision of daily personal living tasks and private hygiene.
Personal care for elders is the support and supervision of daily personal living tasks and private hygiene and toileting, along with dressing and maintaining your personal appearance. It can also include helping with meal preparation, laundry and bed changing. It provides you or your loved one with the opportunity to receive discreet and sensitive one-to-one support from a fully-trained private carer.
Everyones personal care needs are unique, but it typically involves carer-provided assistance with the following tasks:
- Bathing/cleaning/showering
- Shaving
- Assistance with medication
- Eating habits
- Toilet assistance
- Laundry
- Skin care
- Changing your bed
- Using local services
- Seeing friends and family
As people get older, the above tasks become increasingly important due to the fact that the elderly are more susceptible to infection and or illness.
A carer can assist with:
Bathing and showering
Our carers can sensitively assist with personal hygeine to help you feel confident every day
Getting dressed
With a carer, getting dressed and undressed can become
much quicker and simpler
Oral hygiene
Your carer can help you with brushing your teeth and other areas of oral hygiene
Applying make-up
A carer can help you apply make-up, as well as helping with shaving and hair care
Foot care
Good foot care is especially if you are diabetic and need to be extra vigilant with your feet
Toileting and continence
A carer can help with toileting, changing continence pads, and cleaning intimate areas
Moving position in bed
Our carers can help you to move position in bed to stretch and help avoid pressure injuries
Managing a stoma
Your personal carer can help change or maintain a stoma or catheter bag
Supporting your independence with a personal carer
A fully trained private carer offers discreet personal care to support your independence.
At Helping Hands, our carers are all fully trained to provide dedicated, person-centred home care that promotes your independence and lets you continue to live life on your own terms. Working to your regular routines and ensuring that support is tailored to your specific requirements, you’ll always receive personal care in the way that’s most comfortable and convenient for you.
We believe in the importance of a continuous service and the same familiar faces, especially when it comes to personal care.
The options for personal care
With personal care from Helping Hands, you have the choice of having either visiting care or live-in care, depending on the level of support you require.
Visiting care provides you with someone who visits at set times of the day or even overnight – to provide the support you need at the times you need it.
Visits from 30 minutes per week
Flexible care
Condition-led support
If you require ongoing personal care and need support at all times of the day and night, it may be best to have a live-in carer, living at home with you to provide 24-hour care.
Companionship
Round-the-clock help
Carer matched to you
Personal care, tailored to your needs
Our personal care plans are built entirely around your specific needs and routines.
Like all forms of care, support with personal care is built completely around your individual needs and personal routines. If you like to wash before breakfast or have a bath before going to bed, a carer will happily follow your schedule, letting you live the way you want.
With home care, you have the choice of having a visiting carer – someone who visits at set times of the day or even overnight – to provide the support you need. If you require ongoing support, it may be best to have a live-in carer, living at home with you to provide 24 hour care.
Additional pages we think you’ll find useful:
Live-in care
With live-in care, you’ll have the opportunity to have one our brilliant carers live in your home and offer 24/7 support
Visiting care
Our visiting care service gives you flexible, personalised support in your home at the times that you need it most
Elderly care
Our elderly care focuses on supporting the specific problems faced by elderly people, such as mobility, memory loss and more
Support for younger people
We provide support to people of all ages and with all manner of needs, including younger people over the age of 18
-
See what this means for youWe are a fully regulated serviceClosely monitored by an external regulatory bodyAt Helping Hands our care is fully-regulated
Independent inspections
Audits conducted by a regulatory body to give you peace of mind that we do what we say we will do.
Fully vetted and approved carers
Our carers are vetted and checked through a robust recruitment process which complies with the regulations.
Comply with regulatory standards
We have to comply with regulatory standards to maintain our registration, meaning our customers are reassured that they are receiving a high standard of care.
Standardised training across the company
Training for all carers and staff is in line with the Care Certificate, meaning our employees are trained to a nationally-recognised standard before they work unsupervised with our customers, providing a safe and responsive service.
Helping HandsUn-regulatedCarers who go above and beyond
Helping Hands carers truly go above and beyond for every customer, whatever your needs.
We’re extremely particular about who we recruit to our care teams, only hiring the most compassionate, dedicated candidates. Every carer is expertly trained to provide personal care in a way that is discreet and respectful of your personal boundaries at all times.
As well as providing personal care, our carers can also assist you around your home in a number of other ways, such as:
Help with the housework
Our carers can assist with tasks and chores around the house, such as cleaning, vacuuming and doing the laundry
Provide mobility assistance
All Helping Hands carers receive mobility support training, so they can help you get in and out of bed and access your whole home
Prepare meals and drinks
From popping the kettle on to preparing your favourite dinners, your carer can assist with all your culinary needs
Assist with medication
Our carers are fully trained to help collect, organise and administer your medication, ensuring you stick to your plan
Friendly companionship
As well as practical and physical support, our friendly carers also provide great company if you’re feeling lonely throughout the week
Helping you get out and about
Whether on public transport or in their car, a carer can help you get to the shops, see family, or even go away for the weekend
Let the numbers do the talking!
Rated as the best home care provider* in the UK with over 3450 official Trustpilot reviews.
Our average Trustpilot review score is an industry-leading 4.8, so find out why our customers are rating us as the UK’s leading home care provider.
4.8 on3,450+ reviews*Data provided live from Trustpilot.com 2023Call our team to arrange personal carePersonal care for someone living with dementia
We’ve got experts and specialists on hand to provide your loved one with gentle support.
Our carers are fully trained to offer specialist dementia care, including Alzheimer’s care. It is common for someone who is living with dementia to need support with personal care matters. But this can be difficult if that person is experiencing anxiety and confusion over who people are and shame and embarrassment over more intimate activities such as bathing and dressing.
We train our elderly carers to try and understand any sources of anxiety or resulting aggression from someone who is living with a type of dementia. They offer gentle encouragement and support to help your loved one feel at ease. Sometimes it’s as simple as offering extra space, or even demonstrating the task for them.
Additional pages we think you’ll find useful:
Who is personal care for?
Read more about the symptoms and conditions we can support, and whether personal care might be right for you
Catheter, bowel and stoma care
Find out how your carer can provide dedicated catheter, bowel and stoma care
Gastrostomy care
Discover how our carers can sensitively and discreetly assist with managing and cleaning a PEG tube
Better than residential care
When you’re looking for support, it’s important to find a care plan that works for you. Unlike residential care,
care at home from Helping Hands is fully tailored to your personal needs and preferences.Helping Hands Helping Hands careResidential care Residential careYou can remain in the comfort of your own homeYou have full control over your meal times and preferencesOne-to-one, 24-hour care from your own dedicated carerYou can continue with your preferred lifestyle and routinesYour friends and family can visit as much as they like
When should personal care be considered?
Sometimes personal care matters can be difficult for a close family member or friend to carry out, with some feeling awkward about a change in relationship or uncomfortable about completing the more intimate tasks. In instances like these, it can be much easier for a trained carer who is accustomed to supporting with personal care to step in and help.
You may wish to consider personal care if you are:
Recovering from surgery
If you’ve been discharged from hospital, you may require personal care until you’re back on your feet
Living alone
Living alone can make personal care routines more difficult, and increases the risk of injuring yourself
Prone to memory loss
Those in the later stages of dementia may forget that they need to wash, or how to go to the toilet
Struggling with hygiene
Bad hygiene can affect your confidence and independence, but it’s nothing a helping hand can’t fix
How to arrange care
1Speak to our team
Call our team of experts on 0330 037 6958 to talk through your options and any questions you may have
2Free home care assessment
Your local Helping Hands manager will visit you to discuss your requirements and learn about the type of carer you’re after
3Find your carer
We’ll help to match you with a carer that meets your preferences and has the right skills and experience for your needs
Call today to arrange personal careFully Regulated by the CQC / CIW
Here at Helping Hands, our personal care is fully managed and regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
From your very first phone call to our friendly team, every aspect of your home care service is independently monitored and regulated by the CQC and Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW).
Why is being a regulated company important?
What does regulation mean?
Regulation means that every aspect of our care service is independently monitored and assessed
Why do we choose to be regulated?
We choose to provide a regulated service to provide our customers with full peace of mind
How does regulation affect my care?
Regulation means that your care and your carers will be required to meet industry standards
Personal care FAQs
-
What is personal care?
-
Personal care is an umbrella term commonly used to define the range of services put in place to support an individual with personal hygiene and toileting, along with dressing and maintaining your personal appearance.
-
What is included with personal care?
-
Personal care can include but is not limited to; bathing and showering, including bed-baths, applying lotions and creams as required, dressing and getting ready for bed, oral hygiene, continence care and much more.
-
What is the most important part of personal hygiene?
-
Washing your hands is one of, if not the most important personal hygiene practice. While there are many other important aspects of personal hygiene, by far the most important step you can take to prevent the spreading of germs is washing your hands.
Page reviewed by Carole Kerton-Church, Regional Clinical Lead, on July 25, 2024.
How we wrote this page
This page has been produced referencing key insights and data from external experts, trusted medical sources and our team of in-house specialists. We have worked hard to ensure that all information is as accurate as possible and reflects current consensus at the time of writing and reviewing.-
