Home InsteadReviews of homeinstead.com

Home instead are a shockingly negligent organisation and I do not recommend them. While they employ some lovely, attentive carers, they also employ carers who don't care. We pay for 4 visits a day to my disabled mother, including a nighttime visit, to ensure that she is helped into bed each night. Four nights ago, the carer didn't turn up and didn't tell us. My mother tried to get herself into bed and had a fall as a result. We didn't notice until the middle of the night, by which time she'd been on the floor for hours and we had to call an ambulance to help her up as I couldn't reach my sister who lives 10 minutes away. Luckily my sister eventually woke up and was able to go round and help my mother up. The camera in her room saved her life but - shockingly - Home Instead has reported the camera to social services and had it removed. What happened was that some of the carers were closing my mother's bedroom door - making it virtually impossible for her to get out of the room in the night with her walker. Other carers were not ensuring she went to the loo at night, meaning she would wake up in a few hours and try to get up to use the loo - she had a couple of falls as a result. Other carers were leaving the light on at night, even though we had asked them to switch it off - my mother would wake up in the night and think it was morning and try to get up - she had a fall as a result. We noticed all this because of the camera and asked the carers if they would leave the door open, switch off the light and ensure she used the loo before bed. One or more of the carers didn't like that someone was "telling them now to do their job", so they retaliated by complaining that we had a camera in her room and had it removed. The worst thing was that they did this without giving us any notice meaning we didn't have time to put other monitoring devices into place. This means that we can no longer see if she's had a fall in the night. So tonight we are not able to look after her properly since they only switched it off at 8pm. You can reach your own conclusions about this company based on our experiences.

*AVOID* - As other have said they charge for 4 weeks of non-care if you cancel despite hospital admission, death or sudden care-home requirements (all highly likely). This amounts to £10s of thousands for some. This criminal cash-grab on the vulnerable must be made illegal and limited to two weeks at most. Many other more legitimate companies offer 24 hour cancellation for more experienced care; and I strongly recommend you go with these others; don't fall for the flashy website and 'for us it's personal' frontage. There are all-round better and cheaper agencies out there.

Install cameras in you homes !!!! My mother DIED under the watch of a former Home Instead aide less than two days after she was in her home; we have her timesheet. I was never informed when my mother was transported away to die, and the Home Instead aide never called the Yost facility in Forest Hills to report the transport. The building’s security cameras caught the aide on video trespassing in her building from the time my mother was wheeled away, until two o’ clock the next morning.

Please don’t it’s a bad company to work for 😞

So my mother had 7 visits (7 hours of care) and was charged £992. The catch is the contract. My mother had a fall and ended up in hospital. At that time we didn’t know whether she would return home of go to a care home. As it turned out she has ended up in a care home. Home instead want 4 weeks’ notice to cancel. I can understand that some notice period would be required, but ending up in hospital was not her fault and 4 weeks is ridiculously excessive. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS unless you know exactly when you want to give them notice – which you won’t know of course until something happens. They have a very nice office by the way, no doubt funded by care that they are not providing

Good ethos , glossy brochure etc but don’t return calls so unable to progress a care package , if unreliable at this stage , that worries me

Home Instead order numerous unneeded products and bill the customer. While the caregivers are reasonable and helpful, the turnover in management indicates numerous internal problems.

We were prepared to pay their extortionate fees as we assumed the service would represent the overpriced £33/hr but I gradually realised agreed chores were continually not being done despite being assured this issue would be addressed. They also attempted to overcharge us so check your invoices! Another issue was the management not allowing enough time for carers to get from one job to another so I don’t necessarily blame the individual carers as most of them seemed pleasant and caring.