Please find here a few of the most commonly asked questions by people looking for live-in care support. We have tried to answer the questions as fully as possible to enable you to assess for yourself the type and quality of the services we have to offer. If these responses do not completely answer your questions, please give us a call and we will be happy to discuss our services with you.

Q. If my PA is ill or has a personal emergency, what happens?

A. Origin PAs are asked to contact the office as soon as there is any problem that may mean they are unable to work, that way we can try to find a replacement as soon as possible. Our Care Manager will also discuss with you the options for an appropriate replacement carer.  Please be aware that we would always give you clear identification details of any new PA to be sent to your home.

Q. What if I don’t like/get on with the Origin PA?

A. At Origin we appreciate how important it is to find the right Personal Assistant to make independent living a reality, which is why we invest so much thought and effort in our carer selection, training and placement. Careful matching of PAs to match your lifestyle, personality and location ensure a good client/ personal assistant relationship.

Through careful selection we hope we achieve a balance of trust, friendship, respect and understanding  between our clients and carers alongwith professionalism, efficiency and practical skills. However in the unlikely event of a personal clash between client and PA, Origin will after full discussion with our client endeavour to find an alternative carer as soon as possible.

Q. As I live alone, with none of my family nearby, I need a carer I can trust and rely upon. Are Origin carers trustworthy and dependable?

A. Our initial selection process is quite demanding with each PA candidate attending a personal interview prior to their acceptance on one of our training courses. We are rigorous in our reference and security checking, doing everything we can to ensure the trustworthyness and reliability of our carers.

As part of the practical and intensive four day training course that all our carers must attend and pass we instil in Origin PAs the need for reliability as well as ensuring they have the necessary skills to undertake their role.

Support is always available from Origin on our 24 hour help line, should you have any concerns about your care package or the PA assigned to you. However we believe that regular communication and an open dialogue between ourselves and our clients is the best way to prevent any minor day to day differences or problems.
 

Q. I enjoy having new carers, particularly those from overseas. So far I have had carers from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Do all Origin carers speak English?

A. Origin carers come from all over the world and from a variety of backgrounds and we check at interview and before that all our carers have a good level of spoken English. Whilst English may not be their mother tongue we expect all our PAs to have conversational level English and above as we realise how important it is that the client’s wishes can be fully understood at all times.