“It’s amazing to have our mother-daughter relationship back” – Mandy and Maggie’s respite care journey
When Maggie, who lives with Alzheimer’s, needed increasing support at home, daughter Mandy, who works as a healthcare assistant, said their relationship became strained.
Home carers visited several times daily, with district nurses administering insulin for her diabetes, but Maggie often refused support and medication. Overnight Mandy went from being a daughter to a carer.
“I was being the daughter I said I would never be,” she says. “Running around changing bedding, rushing about and not having any quality time with mum. I could be there for two hours and not once sit down with her. You don’t realise it at the time but she was starting to resent me.”
In desperate need of a rest, Mandy booked a respite care break for Maggie at our Juniper House Residential Care Home in Worcester. Just 10 days later she couldn’t believe the transformation!
“When I collected her from Juniper she looked like my mum again, she was sparkling and there was light in her eyes,” she says. “Mum was delighted – she’d been singing and listening to music and was telling me how lovely it was. It gave me goosebumps because I could see she’d had a wonderful time; I was so relieved.”
Maggie returned home and Mandy said things immediately “nose-dived”. Maggie would refuse the support of her home carers and her daughter continually had to intervene, leaving her struggling to juggle being a carer, her work and finding time for her own children and grandchildren.
She says: “I wanted the best for mum, and it wasn’t working. She would sleep a lot and her mood would get really low. She needed that continuity that she had at Juniper.”
It wasn’t long before they decided Maggie would move into Juniper permanently, and now Mandy can relax knowing she is being cared for.
“She’s happy to be there and it’s so nice for her to be around people,” she says. “It’s amazing to have our mother-daughter relationship back, because I am not engrossed in her care – it’s so lovely to have a giggle together again just me and her!”
For advice about care options, including pre-bookable respite care breaks at Juniper House of any of our other care homes in Worcestershire, our Enquiry Support Team are here to talk on 0800 046 4818.
