For most people, location is an important factor when choosing residential care. “Care homes near me” is a popular search on Google, with nearly 30 thousand searches each month.
A lot of people want to stay near their friends and family, keep their current healthcare team, or simply make the moving process a bit easier.
We’ll look at why people choose local care homes and supported living schemes, whether it’s the right choice for you, and how you can find a care facility near you.
In this article, we’re mostly talking about care homes. However, most of our comments are applicable to nursing homes and supported living schemes, too. In general, we’re talking about moving out of your current home and into a property that can better support your needs, whether that’s a care or nursing home, group home, retirement village, or sheltered housing environment.
Need to find a care home urgently? Find Your Room can help. Our website and app can show you care providers with vacancies – simply search by location and choose “Vacant” to find local care homes with availability.
Why choose a care home near me?
Lots of people want to stay near their current home when they’re looking for care – and there are plenty of good reasons for that.
Reasons to stay nearby for care:
- You’ll be near your family and friends.
- You can maintain community links, like attending the same church or social groups.
- You can continue seeing the same GP, dentist, and optician.
- Moving short distances can be easier and cheaper.
- You can continue to be surrounded by familiar accents, food, and references.
- If your local identity is very important to you, staying nearby might feel like the obvious choice.
Whether you’re looking for a nursing home, care home, sheltered housing scheme, or any other type of residential care, staying local might be a priority for you. However, you might be uncertain about whether you want to stay close or move further afield. To help you, let’s look at the reasons why you might want to find care near your current home.
Staying close to family and friends
You might want to stay near your family and friends. Whether you’re moving to a sheltered housing scheme and plan to spend time visiting them, or you need nursing home care and need them to visit you, staying local means that it’s easier to spend time with your loved ones.
If your loved one is a young person moving to a supported living environment, staying near the family home might feel especially important.
When you’re thinking about visits, consider transport links to your chosen care facility. Do local buses run nearby, and is there good parking? Will you and your family easily be able to travel to and from the care home?
Maintaining community links
For people with strong community links, it’s extra important to stay local when looking for residential care. If you attend a local church, go to a nearby gym, or volunteer at your grandchildren’s school, you probably want to keep that up.
Maintaining your community links can help reduce the risk of isolation. People with care needs are often at a higher risk of loneliness and isolation, but if you can continue with your current activities, this can improve your wellbeing and encourage you to maintain your independence in the future.
Keeping continuity of care
People with care needs often build up strong relationships with their GP, specialist teams, and other healthcare providers. If you move away, you won’t be able to continue seeing them. Additionally, if you’re waiting for hospital treatment, your waiting list position might not be automatically transferred.
Moving to a different area and finding new healthcare providers can feel daunting, especially if you have complex health needs and see a variety of specialists. However, if you stay in your current GP’s catchment area, you should be able to remain with their practice.
If this is a priority for you, talk to the practice manager about their catchment area, so you can make sure your chosen care facility is within their boundaries.
All care homes in England have a named GP who will make weekly visits, but you can still request to see your own doctor.
Having an easier moving experience
Moving short distances is often cheaper and easier than moving across the country.
You may not need to hire a professional moving service, even if you’re bringing furniture with you. You don’t have to bring all your clothes, furniture, and other belongings in one trip. You and your family can make the move in several stages.
Surrounding yourself with familiarity
Moving to residential care is a big change. Even when you know it’s the best choice for you, it can feel very difficult. You’re moving to a new property, you’ll be surrounded by different people, and you’re giving up some of your independence.
However, staying close to home means that you can surround yourself with some familiar aspects of life.
Your new neighbours will probably have familiar local accents, for example. If your area has a popular food, such as oatcakes in Stoke-on-Trent, your care home’s restaurant will probably serve them. Reminiscence groups might talk about big events that happened in the area.
Familiarity is often particularly important for people with dementia, autistic people, and those with learning disabilities. However, everyone can benefit from feeling like they have something in common with their fellow residents.
Keeping your local identity
For some people, their local identity is very important. Do you think of yourself as a Cockney, a Sheffield lass, or a proud Cornishman?
If you’ve always lived in the local area and that’s important to you, you should try to find a local care home or supported living property.
Do most people look for care nearby?
Most care seekers want to stay near their current home, or at least in their hometown, when they move to a care home or supported living scheme.
According to Semrush, more than 27 thousand people search online for “care homes near me” every month. Among people looking for retirement housing, the average distance moved is around 8.8 miles.
However, some people may end up moving long distances to find the right care facility. For example, if you or your loved one need specialist support, there may not be appropriate care services near your hometown.
Some people may be discharged from hospital into care facilities far from home, and later choose to move to a different property, nearer to their family and friends.
What if I can’t find care homes near me?
Depending on your location, you might not be able to find suitable local care homes or supported living schemes with vacancies. This is more likely if you live in a very rural area, or if you’re looking for a specialist care facility.
If you can’t find suitable residential care nearby, there are a few options:
- Wait until a suitable care home place is available: If you’re currently managing your own care needs, you may be able to wait a few weeks or months until there’s a vacancy in a local care home or supported living scheme.
- Consider home care: If you need help managing your care needs, but want to stay at home, you could hire a care agency to help you at home. This could be a temporary solution until there’s a suitable care home room available.
- Move to a care facility further away, and continue to look for a suitable care home in your hometown: If you need care urgently and can’t stay at home, you might not be able to wait. You may need to move to a care or nursing home in another area, so that your needs are met, until you’re able to find a local care home place.
- Choose a care home in another area: If you don’t want to plan another move, you might prefer to choose a care home in a different area. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to live near the coast, or you want to be near your family in a different city. This could be the time to make that change.
Should I look for care homes near me?
You might still be undecided about where you should look for care. Do you want to stay near your current home, or move further away?
We’ve put together some questions that can help you decide.
Should I stay local for care?
- Is this my first time moving out of the family home? Perhaps you’re a young person with care needs looking for supported living, or you’re older and need to move to a care or nursing home that won’t be able to accommodate your partner. Either way, you probably want to stay near enough that your family can visit you easily.
- Will I need help from family or friends who live nearby? If you’re moving to a supported living scheme, your loved ones might continue to support you. Staying nearby makes this easier.
- Do I want to continue spending time with family and friends who live nearby? Whether you want to visit loved ones or have them visit you, it’s usually easier on everyone concerned if you stay local.
- Am I involved in my local community? This might include volunteering, attending a place of worship, or going to support groups or classes nearby. Staying nearby means that you can continue these activities.
- Am I waiting for treatment or under the care of specialists at my local hospital? Transferring your care to another area can be complicated, and you may need to wait longer for treatment.
- Do I have a good relationship with my GP, community nurses, or other local healthcare providers? If so, it might be important to stay in your GP’s catchment area.
- Is it important that I surround myself with familiar things? Care seekers with dementia or learning disabilities might appreciate hearing familiar accents, and knowing that their fellow residents know the local area.
How do I find a care home near me?
There are a few ways to find a local care home, nursing home, or supported living environment. You could ask your social worker or hospital discharge co-ordinator to help you, ask trusted friends for local recommendations, or find and contact care facilities directly.
Finding care homes with vacancies can be frustrating. When you search online, or call local properties, there’s no guarantee that they have availability. You might contact five or six care homes before you even find one that has a room available for you.
Find Your Room makes it easier to find a place in a care home, nursing home, or supported living scheme. Our app and website can show you properties with current vacancies – so you can contact care homes near you, knowing that they’ll have availability to support you or your loved one.
