Jamie, a wife in her mid-30s, takes the responsibility of looking after her mother-in-law, who suffers from dementia. Alongside caretaking, she also works full time. Being on the verge of an emotional breakdown, her husband suggests seeking help for her mother-in-law. However, she is not willing to put her mother-in-law in a residential care home.
What is this hesitancy towards residential care homes—that keeps adult children from sending their parents? Perhaps the caregiver’s guilt, “Our parents cared for us when we were kids. So, we must do the same now that they are old.”
Care, in such a scenario, is often perceived in the form of extremes, i.e., either caring for parents at home or sending them into residential care homes. Identifying the need for in-between care services, Live-in Care Direct manages to bridge the gap successfully.
Based in the United Kingdom, Live-in Care Direct is an alternative care solution that ensures to meet the needs of an individual through the comfort of their own homes without having to relocate to a caregiving facility.
Known for the immense popularity amongst the caregiving community, we at Insights Care crossed paths with Jason Russell, the Owner and CEO of Live-in Care Direct, to comprehend the operations that are improving the lives of the elderly.
The Quest for Elderly Care Solutions
Live-in Care Direct is an award-winning live-in care agency founded by the Owner and CEO Jason Russell. The inspiration for Live-in Care Direct had originally derived from Jason’s personal experiences while in search of care solutions for his own grandmother, during which he faced a multitude of complexities in finding a better alternative to a care home.
Currently, the agency supports families across the UK to improve the way live-in care is offered, improving the lives of the elderly and those with long-term illnesses in the comfort of their own homes without the need to be uprooted into residential care homes.
Journey to Success
Jason Russell dropped out of school at the age of 16 years old and is now a self-made entrepreneur, having made a success in the debt and care industry.
He launched Live-in Care Direct whilst running Debt Wave, an FCA-regulated company, which in 2018 became one of the UK’s largest introductory debt counseling agencies, offering IVA’s, DMP’s, Protected Trust Deeds and Debt Relief Orders.
Jason has also worked on a multitude of ideas over the past 20 years, having launched numerous successful companies to make something of his life and a difference to others. Some of his ventures include Rabbit, which offers low-cost international call solutions. Hydrospring, which imported Jacuzzis from the Far East; a high-end vehicle registration agency; a car marketing agency, a swimming trunk brand; a real estate agency, a 50’s reproduction photography company, a social media company; and the list goes on!
Jason has now found his passion in the care industry and is winning national awards against some of the largest agencies in the care sector.
He says, “For many, university and college provide a road to success, but it’s not the only road if you want to make a real difference. If you don’t keep pushing on with your ideas and dreams, you will end up being hired to build someone else’s dream – keep showing up and never give up! One of the biggest keys to success is consistency and staying focused!”
The Value of a Home’s Comfort
The idea behind launching Live-in Care Direct was to enable people to stay in the comfort of their home for a longer period, avoiding the stress and worries of moving into a residential care home.
Hence, the team has been committed to providing the clients and their families with the highest quality live-in care and support in their own homes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, taking responsibility towards their clients extremely seriously. “We are available seven days a week, from 8am to 10pm,” says Jason.
He further states, “We aim to deliver an efficient, flexible, value-for-money quality life in personalized care and support service. We are here to enable and support clients to retain their independence of thought and ensure they are supported to live a positive fulfilled lifestyle, ensuring that our client is always treated with dignity and respect.”
Live-in Care Direct strives to create an organization that raises the standards and offers quality care at home with a professional and friendly service. It aspires to lead the way in the care sector whilst supporting the elderly and those with specialist medical conditions, including dementia, Parkinson’s, Motor Neurone disease and MS. To meet the objective, the agency provides the latest training and technology to ensure all our clients’ needs are met and fulfilled.
Specializing ‘Live-In Care’ Service
The key service that the agency specializes in is Live-in Care, which is inundated with inquiries about its newly built automated tech platform that enables customers to select carers. It is useful as it takes away the need to employ extra staff while being able to provide a service to all incoming leads.
“This allows me to remain in full control of the company and become a major player within the live-in and hourly care markets, further concentrating on live-in within the UK and London for hourly care,” adds Jason.
Live-In Care Direct welcomes Prime Minister’s Liz Truss ideas on funding for social care so that more people can stay in the comfort of their own homes. The agency has been waiting for something like this to happen and has planned accordingly to cope with the huge demand for many years.
Making Home Care Functional, Through Innovative Technology
Home care innovations are changing the landscape of the Live-in Care sector. New and exciting care innovations are being unveiled all the time — from AI to robotics — that shape the future by the ability to incorporate and build great technology that assists care provision.
Running on the parallels of technology, Live-in Care Direct is currently working with a UK-based company specializing in voice-activated devices.
“When it comes to helping the elderly and disabled stay at home for as long as possible, technology like Alexa and Google Home are a great solution for everything from companionship to helping take medication on time. These devices are providing elderly people with reduced mobility or independence the power to revolutionize their lives at home,” emphasizes Jason.
For this reason, Live-in Care Direct has created a dedicated voice-activated wristband that caregivers can program to make sure that clients take medication on time should the caregiver be on a break. The remarkable technology also acts as a fall detection product, alerting the family and caregiver should a fall occur. “We are the first agency in the UK to offer this service, which will be completely free of charge to our clients,” adds Jason.
Another huge breakthrough is Live-in Care Direct’s tech-based platform, which can store thousands of qualified carers, enabling it to offer professional, high-quality Live-in care anywhere across the whole of the UK, ensuring families benefit from a sensible and low-cost solution.
One of the platform’s feature includes a family multimedia pack, which enables elderly clients to view photos and home videos of their loved ones. It has been helping a lot with the dementia clients that approach the agency. The platform is so clever that it also matches a database of films, images AAand music to the clients’ age and era.
Jason says, “We can now support families across the UK and improve the way live-in care is currently being offered. We continue to use state-of-the-art technology to stay one step ahead, keeping loved ones safe at all times.”
The Challenging Side of Home Care
In an attempt to provide care solutions to the elderly, the home care industry faces a huge lack of carers and rising care costs. As a result, it is pushing the price up for the end user. Whilst Live-in Care Direct had planned during the first lockdown to ensure that things would return to normal, the agency still managed to seek hundreds of qualified carers on its platform to keep up with the huge demand and keep the costs to a minimum for our clients. “Despite being a concern during the initial lockdown phase, we are so pleased to now be in a position to service every single enquiry that comes in,” states Jason.
Learning From Mistakes
Jason reflects back on his journey and draws out the essential ideas that helped him to attain success. He suggests, “When you are first starting out, it can be tempting to pretend that you know everything, but this is not possible. Our industry is incredibly challenging and having someone to learn from and bounce ideas off is paramount. They learn from their mistakes and successes.”
He continues, “I am happy to speak to anyone looking to get involved in the healthcare sector to help as much as I possibly can. Transparency and efficiency are very important in our industry.”
Envisioning Tech Enabled Live-In-Care
Live-in Care Direct is organically on the first page of Google for hundreds of search terms, which equates to thousands of unique visitors each month. Maintaining its position and to keep up with the demand, the agency has created a bespoke tech care platform to service all incoming leads even more efficiently. It will also make space for first-time deals with hourly and respite leads, which is expected to open up a whole new market for the agency.
Emphasizing the future of Live-in Care Direct, Jason states, “The agency plans to employ more staff towards the end of 2022 and is on track to become one of the largest tech-enabled live-in care agencies in the UK, rivalling elder technologies who has raised close to $20m over the past few months.”
Live-in Care Direct, to date, has become hugely successful without any investment and still remains privately owned. He concludes, “The future looks bright for Live-in Care Direct as it is on a mission to acquire smaller agencies who wish to exit the market.”
