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Not room for stair lift. Care workers not allowed. (Hertfordshire). My elderly father is soon to come out from intermediate care & due to his home conditions, will be living upstairs. When he has hospital visits etc transport is arranged & 2 people to get him up & down. However, if we want to bring him down for any thing social, like taking him on holiday, I seem to be hitting a brick wall with the people I try. I can borrow a wheelchair, arrange care elsewhere, hire transport but the missing link is getting him downstairs & back up again on our return. Does any agency/organisation supply this service?

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I've always said, only half jokingly, that every community should have people available to help elders up off the floor when they fell and didn't need medical attention but couldn't get up. Your situation is much the same. So many of us have faced this. With my mother, it was falls. I couldn't get her up on my own and had to call 9-1-1 (they got a little annoyed after awhile).

I do have a suggestion for you. Type your state name and "aging" or "aging services" into your browser. You should find your state's version of the National Family Caregiver Support Program. It may have a slightly different name in your state, but every state has a version. Follow the links to find a contact and ask about services in your community. These people know what you are trying to cope with, so they may be able to suggest something. Good luck,
Carol
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Wow, that's a tough one. I would imagine that there are more people in your situation. As you said, you can arrange for everything else but it's the stairs that are the problem. I think most home health agencies have a 2 hour minimum but you could call and find out. If agencies can send someone out just to give someone a shower (a bath aide) maybe they can send someone out to help get your dad up and down the stairs. However, and I'm just now thinking of this, if you can get someone to come over to get your dad down the stairs he still has to go back up the stairs eventually and I'm not so sure an agency would be able to provide you that kind of assistance without you having to commit to several hours of services. Plus, I read again where you said care workers aren't allowed. Is your dad in a facility that prohibits outside assistance?

Do you have any neighbors who can help? But if your dad is in a facility there probably aren't any neighbors who can help.

If there is a service that can provide you with this kind of assistance I'm sure someone here will have heard about it. I imagine that this is a real stumbling block but I can't help but think that there has to be a way around it.
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I'm guessing it's not a facility, or they'd have safe ways to navigate from one floor to the other. I'm also guessing that agencies that provide caregivers wouldn't permit their workers to assist with stairs .. as I'm imagining the scenario, it's pretty unsafe.

You all may want to reconsider the living arrangements so that his quarters are on the first floor. This is likely to get harder rather than easier, in the long run.

You haven't completed your profile, so I'm not sure: is Hertfordshire the county in England?
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