Direct payment- advice with suspending carers & COVID

Obi1

Hi, this is my first post ... my brother has CP and has only started receiving direct payments which we use to pay a carer agency to support him. With covid19, I am extremely worried about his level of constant daily exposure & would like to possibly suspend the care agency service and provide care for him ourselves as he doesn't have any medical needs, more supervision and assistance with meal prep, cleaning. If we do suspend, I am not sure what will happen about the money accrual?? Will we need to inform the local authority to stop payments as we are suspending service & not the service provider? If it wasn't for the worry about what to do with the finances, I would cancel everything to keep him safe & properly self isolate like everyone else. Advice needed please ...

poppy123456

HI,

Yes, you will need to contact his local council and tell them you have suspended his service at the moment.

pollyanna1052

Obi1

Thanks Polly x

hdeakin

Hi @Obi1, welcome to the community. I would recommend speaking to the local authority. I think there are several people in this situation. Does your brother employ PAs with his direct payments? If this is the case I would check with his PA insurance legal advice and you should have some advice from your local authority. It will also depend on their contract as to whether you need to continue paying them or not. I hope this helps a bit. Good luck.

Obi1

Hi @hdeakin, we use a care agency. We've now taken the decision to temporarily suspend the service, as the agency have said many others are doing the same to protect their family members and caring for the person as best they can whilst extra support is around because of no work & self isolation. The care agency have kindly said they will inform the local authority for us.

Chloe_Alumni

Hi @Obi1 and a very warm welcome to the community! I can understand your concerns. Here is some information about what people can do if they have carers during covid-19.

Please do let us know how your brother gets on.

Obi1

Thanks Chloe x

April2018mom

This is what I have been concerned about. My son has community therapists who work with him. His newly hired occupational therapist currently comes to our flat to do a therapy session with him. I make her wash her hands before starting the weekly session. Is that enough or not? Should I do more? This is our second occupational therapist. I am not sure what to do. I do not wish to scare her. Good and skilled therapists are shockingly rare to find. This particular one was personally recommended to me by another mom of a kid with open defect SB when I was looking for new physical and occupational therapists with safety checks and experience who could work with him. She is private. 
I also recently hired a youngish math and English tutor for both kids. She starts working for us on Wednesday afternoon. This tutor lives in the area. She is also concerned somewhat about the coronavirus. I have hand sanitizer for her to use before starting her tutoring sessions. And I have tissues for her if she sneezes. I had a hard time as it is trying to find a qualified tutor as well, it took me a long time. I’m not going to talk about the boring details. It will be fine, won't it? Things will work out. 

chiarieds

Tbh @April2018mom the last thing I'd think about doing is getting a Maths & English tutor for your 3 & a half year old twins. The tutor is rightly concerned about Coronovirus, & perhaps you should be too. Such young children don't need a tutor, & I thought you were homeschooling them anyway.

At the moment people are being asked to stay at home, so why would you ask someone to unnecessarily to come into your home & put your children at risk? It may not be fine. This is not 'scaremongering' as you've mentioned before, this is a real threat to ourselves, & our loved ones; people of all ages are dying from Coronovirus. I would also put your son's OT on hold for now; I'm sure they will understand.

poppy123456

I couldn't agree more with you here @chiarieds i have no idea why anyone would have people into their homes during these very scary times! I'm sat here watching the news only to hear that the youngest person to die in the UK is a 13 year old boy with NO health conditions and he died sometime today. Tested positive for Covid19.  He actually died of a cardiac arrest in the end, his family were with him. So so sad! My heart goes out to that family.

@April2018mom i must be honest, it's very scary what you are doing, letting those people into your home. Your twins don't really need a maths tutor because they are so young right now. Shouldn't you be thinking of those things in a few years time? Sorry but my mind boggles here.

Doesn't your youngest child have breathing difficulties too?

April2018mom

Thanks.
I have emailed the tutor this morning and asked if she can do online tutoring sessions or email me resources instead. She is happy to send me some teaching resources like age appropriate worksheets via Facebook chat and email. So that problem is fixed. If I have any more questions, or if more help is needed, I will call or text her. I was but I’m outsourcing those two important subjects as I want to do a lot more outdoor exercise with them now the warmer months are almost here. I cannot do everything. 

His therapy is a bit harder. I’m not keen on the idea of a phone consultation when it comes to his therapy. I ideally want to see what the therapist can actually do with my child at my flat. I have to decide by Friday. I may just say come anyway as she does not live too far away but be extra vigilant about hand washing. I feel this is the best option for now. But we will reassess later on. 

Chloe_Alumni

Here is a reminded of the government guidance about social distancing and what people can and cannot during this time.

You are able to leave the house for medical appointment, yet many appointments that are not essential will probably be cancelled. It also is recommended that people outside of your household should not be in your house.

You can still go to the park for outdoor exercise once a day but only alone or with members of your household, not in groups.

Communal places within parks such as sports courts, playgrounds and outdoor gyms have been closed to protect everyone’s health.

We ask that households use parks responsibly and keep 2 metres apart from others at all times.

I hope this clears things up. If you are unsure, the government website should have all of the information that you need.