Comfort Care At Home | How To Find & Arrange It

If your loved one has a medical condition that isn’t curable and needs compassionate and supportive care, comfort care is a dignified and respectful form of care they can instead receive. Comfort care is often provided at home, where trained carers can support your loved one.

Here, we’ve explained what comfort care is, what to expect, how much comfort care costs and how we can help find comfort care near your loved one.

In this article:

1. What is comfort care?
2. How is comfort care different from hospice care or palliative care?
3. Services available through comfort care
4. How much does comfort care cost?
5. Support for people receiving comfort care

What Is Comfort Care?

Comfort care is often aimed at people who have been in the hospital several times due to a medical condition, illness or something similar. Like end-of-life care, it’s now unlikely that further treatment would benefit this person or help their condition.

At this point, carers can help manage any symptoms, such as pain or discomfort, rather than trying to cure them.

Comfort care ensures your loved one is looked after with dignity and symptoms are reduced, helping to make them as comfortable as possible during their final days, weeks or months. A comfort carer understands that this can be a difficult time, so are often on hand to provide emotional support as well.

Comfort care can be provided in a hospice, or as a part of palliative care, such as at home or in a care home.

The illnesses or conditions your loved one may receive comfort care for include:

• Cancer
• Heart disease
• Dementia
• Parkinson’s
• A stroke

How Is Comfort Care Different From Hospice Care or Palliative Care?

Comfort care is very similar to hospice care or palliative care.

Just like palliative care, comfort care provides holistic support, focusing on all aspects of your loved one’s physical, mental and emotional wellbeing, including whatever medical care is needed and any emotional or spiritual support required. This support could be given to the person receiving care and anyone else affected during this challenging period, such as family members or friends.

Comfort care and palliative care are both designed for people who unfortunately won’t recover from their condition, so the goal is to reduce symptoms and provide them with a high quality of life for as long as possible.

Comfort care and palliative care are usually provided by a team of professionals, including hospice staff.

Hospice care is sometimes provided in a hospice, while comfort care and palliative care can be provided in various settings, including in a care home or through home care.

What Services Are Available For Your Loved One Through Comfort Care?

• Managing discomfort and pain - The main goal of comfort care is to minimise any discomfort or pain caused by your loved one’s condition. This could be done by administering certain medications or providing physical therapy

• Managing any other symptoms - Comfort care also aims to minimise any other symptoms your loved one is experiencing, such as nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath and insomnia. By controlling these symptoms, your loved one’s overall wellbeing will be significantly improved

• Emotional and spiritual support- Coping with a serious illness is a tough time for everyone involved. That’s why comfort care also focuses on the emotional and spiritual aspects of care. Services such as supportive counselling, therapy and spiritual care may be provided to help you and your loved one navigate the emotional challenges faced

How Much Does Comfort Care Cost?

In the UK, the cost of comfort care varies from provider to provider and also depends on location, how the comfort care is provided (such as through hourly domiciliary care or full-time live-in care if given at home) and your loved one’s specific needs.

Paying for comfort care

Whether you pay for comfort care and how much will be determined by a financial assessment, which immediately follows a care needs assessment. For comfort care at home, a financial assessment will determine the total value of your loved one’s savings and income to see if they qualify for full or partial funding from their local authority, or if they’ll have to pay for their own care.

Additional funding support and benefits are also available to help pay for care. Your loved one could be eligible for NHS continuing healthcare if they have heightened medical needs. They could also qualify for disability benefits like Attendance Allowance or Personal Independence Payment, depending on whether they’re over or under the State Pension age.

Support For People Receiving Comfort Care

We understand that this period can be a tough one to negotiate for anybody receiving care, along with their friends, family and anybody else affected.

It’s important to know what end-of-life services are available. These can help you and your loved ones with emotional support and practical advice.

Many charities offer this type of support, including:

• Age UK
• Carers Trust
• Carers UK
• Citizen’s Advice
• Marie Curie
• Macmillan Cancer Support
• Hospice UK