A woman's father has been in hospital for a week. On Tuesday she is told he cannot go home without care in place, and the discharge is planned for Friday.
She has never arranged care. She does not know the difference between the types, what any of it costs, what the local authority does, whether he would qualify for anything, or how quickly anything can start.
She telephones four providers in one afternoon between work and the hospital. The one that helps is the one that asked what had happened and then told her what to do first.
1. Ask what has happened
Before describing any service, since the situation determines everything and a family in crisis cannot evaluate options in the abstract.
2. Establish the timescale
Discharge dates, hospital pressure and how quickly something must be in place, which frequently determines what is realistic.
3. Explain the types of care in plain words
Visiting care, live in care, residential and nursing, described by what they actually involve rather than by their names.
4. Explain what happens first
The assessment, who does it and how quickly, since this is the next action and the thing a family most needs to know.
5. Explain the funding position honestly
Self funding, local authority involvement and what assessments determine, which is the question underneath everything else.
6. Explain roughly what things cost
By type, with ranges, since a family cannot plan without knowing whether they are considering something possible.
7. Explain how quickly care can start
Which for somebody facing a Friday discharge is the deciding factor, and which providers are frequently vague about.
8. Explain what the family needs to do
A short list, in order, which is the most useful thing anybody can give somebody coordinating this alongside a job.
9. Explain the assessment visit
What happens, who attends, how long it takes and what is decided, which is the ground in assessment visit questions families ask before care starts.
10. Explain what happens if the situation changes
Since care needs change quickly, and families need to know that a decision now is not permanent.
11. Explain the position on the person's own wishes
Where somebody is resistant to care being arranged, which is extremely common and rarely acknowledged anywhere.
12. Answer at the hour families are actually researching
Which is late at night, after hospital visits and work, as in families researching care homes late at night.
13. Never assess needs or eligibility automatically
Information, orientation and a route to a person who can assess properly, with no automated judgement about anybody's care.
Explain who else can help
Hospital discharge teams, social services and local advice services, named specifically. A provider that points a family to the right statutory route is trusted with everything else it says.
14. Tell them what to do first, then what you offer
An assistant that asks what has happened, establishes the discharge timescale, explains the types of care in plain words, gives honest cost ranges and states what the family should do next reaches somebody arranging care in three days with no experience of any of it. The comparison with a telephone service is set out in website receptionist vs phone receptionist, and a comparable preparation problem in document and information questions before a first meeting. Start at try, see features, and the sector view sits under senior care.