Alzheimer's and dementia care is a specialised form of care supporting people in the various stages of dementia. This will often include medication prompting, reassurance, assistance with eating and drinking, continence care and therapeutic care.

Specialist Curam dementia carers can cover:

• Alzheimer's disease care
• Vascular dementia care
• Lewy Body dementia care
• Frontotemporal dementia care
• As well as the more rare variations of dementia

With Curam you can hire the carer of your choice to provide consistency and person-centred care. We have partnered with Alzheimer's Society UK to offer all of our self-employed carers free specialised online training courses on dementia care.

A specialist dementia and Alzheimer’s carer or personal assistant can support dementia patients by offering the following care types:

• Hourly care
• Live-in care
• Overnight care
• Respite care
• Palliative and end-of-life care

Dementia care in your own home may be the best choice if you want to stay in a comfortable, familiar environment. Here are some of the benefits of dementia home care:

• Allow a person with dementia to stay in their home for longer
• Reduce the distress of someone with dementia
• Offer a person with dementia companionship
• Reduce the isolation of a person with dementia
• Help someone with dementia to see family and friends
• Give structure to a person with dementia’s day
• Allow people with dementia to maintain good nutrition and hydration
• Help people with dementia to stay connected to the community

Live-in dementia care is a good option for people who need constant care in their own home. People in the moderate and later stages of dementia will need 24-hour home care and whilst some people in the early stages of dementia do not require as much assistance as others, it is important to plan for the future.

Here are just some of the activities a carer can help a person with dementia with:

• Movement around the home, such as getting out of bed
• Cooking and encouraging healthy eating
• Preventing and managing sundowning
• Prompting someone to take their medication
• Bathroom assistance and helping with incontinence
• Preventing falls and accidents at home
• Offering reassurance to someone who is confused or scared
• Helping with hobbies, exercise and socialising at home
• Managing distressing behaviour, such as pacing, shouting or aggression

Carers are self-employed and set their own rates on our platform. The cost of care is often determined by the level of care required. These rates can vary according to the carer’s location, experience and qualifications.

The average hourly rate charged on Curam is £16 per hour, with rates starting at £13 an hour. The average live-in care rate charged on Curam is £880 per week, with rates starting at £750 a week. Carer rates include our fee of 12.5% + VAT.

You pay for respite care though a secure payment system on our app or website. Your carer of choice will create a service agreement and shift invoice which will automatically be sent to your Curam account for your approval. Once you have approved these, you will be taken to the payment portal. Your payment is held securely until the shift is completed and is then released to the carer 2 working days after the end of the shift minus our fee.

Off-platform and cash payments are not accepted and are liable to a placement fee of £2000. Please see our terms and conditions for more information, specifically point 9.3.

To arrange respite care on the Curam platform, you can filter by care type, condition experience, languages spoken and more in your search for a carer. If you see a particular carer that fits your criteria, send them a message asking their availability and outlining your care needs.

Alternatively, you can tell us your care requirements and carers that fit those needs will apply to your Curam account. We recommend that you call or meet your carer of choice before contracting with them. Click here for some advice on interviewing a carer.