Homeshare
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- Lead Organisation
Two Generations
- Project contact
Justin Dewhirst
07554 037263
This is an innovative project that can benefit people at the start of a caring journey for their parents, as well as for their parent themselves.
For many adults in the UK, it’s a familiar feeling to be worrying about their parents as they age. They may not feel their parents need professional care support (and they may not be able to access council funded care or afford self-funded care), but they do feel their parents need some level of care and support which they cannot offer themselves consistently because they don’t live nearby or it’s difficult to fit in with work and other commitments.
This is where Homeshare comes in, a national service providing support to family carers (and sometimes professional carers as well).
Homeshare brings together two people from different generations, helping the older person feel safe, enjoy companionship and retain independence while providing much-needed support and reassurance to their unpaid carer, whether a relative or a friend. The younger person provides overnight companionship and help around the household, things like cooking, laundry, light cleaning and gardening – or other things like help using websites or accessing online resources. Homeshare gives the unpaid carer the support they need, secure in the knowledge they don’t have to care alone, with a sharer on hand for the day-to-day tasks that make all the difference.
Here’s just one of many testimonials, from the family of a Surrey Householder:
“Mum really enjoys having her sharer in the house and has said what a charming and considerate person she is. I am delighted my mother and her sharer are getting along so well and wanted to thank you for introducing us to such a wonderful homesharer.”
- Partners
Age UK, The Carents Room, Care Workers Charity, Southwark, Adopt A Grandparent, Agespace.org, Befriending Networks
- Project duration
Ongoing
- Key beneficiaries
Adult carers, caring for older parents and relatives
Homeshare
Why we started this initiative
Over 3 million over-65s in the UK live alone and more than a third can go over a month without speaking to a friend, neighbour or family member.
While family members often do what they can to tackle the challenge of loneliness and isolation (a major cause of increased physical and mental health problems), these 5 million + unpaid carers sometimes struggle to gain professional support. This might be down to the cost of care or they are not eligible for council-funded care.
To help these isolated older people and their unpaid carers, social enterprise Two Generations provides a national Homeshare service.
Our Goals
Homeshare aims to tackle loneliness among older people and provide support to family carers juggling care and other commitments. We partner with many third sector organisations to provide help in the community for those who are not at crisis point but need companionship and help around the home which family carers can’t always provide.
By helping families and their older parents before they’re in need of adult social care services (and sometimes alongside professional carers), we also help reduce some of the number of people looking for council-funded support, so councils can focus limited resources where they’re needed most.
How we’re implementing it
With over five years of experience, we provide Homeshare matches, bringing together a Householder and a Sharer in a Homeshare.
The Householder is typically an older person living alone and with a spare room, looking for companionship and practical support in order to remain in their home. Their family may not be able to provide all the support they’d like.
The Sharer is typically a younger person (e.g. mature student, care worker) who lives with the Householder, providing company, help around the house and offering the peace of mind an overnight presence gives to Householder and their family alike.
More people than ever are getting in touch and we partner with charities nationally and locally to support Homeshares in their communities through a simple referral approach. We provide an email address and our phone number, alongside information, Homeshare stories and content from Homesharers and carers to share in newsletters, on websites and via social networks.
We regularly measure the impact of our work and our latest study shows 77% of Householders who mentioned isolation or loneliness as their biggest challenge pre-homeshare found these reduced after just 6 months while 44% of our Householders felt that the challenges they faced pre-homeshare were completely eliminated after 6 months.
We’ve learnt Homeshare helps family carers, as this testimonial from a Householder’s family member confirms “I am so grateful to Two Generations for finding the perfect Homesharer for my mother so quickly. I have always felt well supported and the whole process has been very professional and efficient. I have never done something like this before and was worried we wouldn’t find the right match for mum. But what we have now is a perfect companion who is just lovely and definitely feels part of our family in such a short time. We all feel much more reassured that there is someone who is always looking out for her when we can’t be with mum and can all sleep well at night knowing someone is with her. Mum loves her company and treats her like her daughter. She is so much happier nowadays.”