Social care services are available if you need care and support to live independently. In Aberdeenshire, these services are provided by Aberdeenshire Council and NHS Grampian through the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership (AHSCP).
Social care services include care and support at home (including free personal care), day activities, respite care and support in a care home.
Information on how to get care services is on Aberdeenshire Council’s website. Provision of these services are based on eligibility criteria, which give priority to those who are at the greatest risk of harm.
Enablement
Enablement is a short-term programme of support to rebuild or maintain skills which may have been affected by illness or injury.
Dementia may cause a change in your abilities. You may find tasks you once found easy become more challenging. An enablement approach looks at alternative ways to do tasks. It includes additional advice and guidance from Home Carers to help you build confidence in your skills.
Enablement is limited to six weeks. Towards the end of the enablement period, a review is done to decide if you need any ongoing care and support.
Self-directed Support
Self-directed Support (SDS) puts you in control of the social care and support services you may need. SDS gives you the opportunity to be more creative around how you choose to be supported. It is a Scottish Government strategy, backed by the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013.
If you need ongoing care or support, a Care Manager or Enablement and Support Coordinator will do an assessment to work out your eligibility for SDS and identify your ongoing goals (sometimes called outcomes). A support plan is developed identifying how you want your support to be arranged. This may include care and support services provided by AHSCP, or you may choose something different like employing your own Personal Assistant or going to a community group.
A budget is identified for your support. SDS gives you options around how much choice and control you would like over managing that budget.
There are 4 SDS Options to choose from:
Option 1: you choose and direct how the budget is used and manage the budget (known as Direct Payment).
Option 2: you choose how the budget is used, but the money is managed by someone else (sometimes called an Individual Service Fund).
Option 3: you ask Aberdeenshire Council to choose and arrange services for you.
Option 4: you choose to have a mix of these options to suit your needs.
More information about SDS is available on these websites:
- Aberdeenshire Council
- Cornerstone SDS Support Service (Aberdeenshire)
- Minority Ethnic Carers of People Project (MECOPP) SDS resources, including a guide to SDS for people with dementia