Care guides
Everything we have written for families
Practical, UK-specific writing about caring for an older parent at home — the everyday situations, the conditions that change a day, and honest comparisons with the alternatives. Nothing here is about medication.
Start here
The big guides most families read first.
Everyday situations
The specific worries that bring people here.
- When mum forgets to eat lunch
- When dad stops answering the phone
- The calls that never connect
- When a parent sleeps the whole afternoon
- When the nights stop being nights
- When appointments keep getting missed
- When they stop going out
- When they simply do not drink enough
- When meals quietly stop happening
- When they forget they have eaten
- The same question, over and over
- When the days stop having names
- When the pendant alarm stays in a drawer
- When they will not accept help
- When you cannot check in
- Hot weather when they live alone
- Getting a parent to drink more
- Loneliness in later life
Dementia and memory
Living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment at home.
- Dementia care at home
- Living alone with dementia
- Building a daily routine that holds
- Getting the morning right
- The evening decides the night
- Building a mealtime routine
- Sundowning, and the hour before it
- How to give a reminder that lands
- Memory aids for dementia
- Dementia aids, room by room
- Activities at home
- Should you remind them they have dementia?
- Mild cognitive impairment, explained
- MCI or early dementia?
- Staying independent with MCI
- Daily prompts for MCI
- Prompting without taking over
- Dementia check-in service
Conditions and routines
How a day is shaped by health, recovery and mobility.
- The first fortnight after coming home
- Frailty and the shape of a day
- When pain sets the timetable
- A steady day with COPD
- Daily routine with Parkinson's
- Stroke recovery at home
- Prompts that support stroke recovery
- When reminders cannot be read
- When the day loses its person
- Signs of dehydration that get missed
- End of life care at home
Questions families ask
Straight answers to the decisions that keep people up at night.
- Can they still manage on their own?
- When living alone is no longer safe
- Having the conversation nobody wants
- Do reminder apps work in dementia?
- Do smart speakers work for older parents?
- Do dementia clocks help wandering?
- What is a dementia clock?
- Care, or being checked up on?
- How many reminders is too many?
- Live-in care, or a bit more support?
- Why smart alarms fail older adults
Comparisons
What we do and do not replace, honestly set out.
- Video calls or daily reminders?
- Smart speaker or reminder service?
- Whiteboard or spoken reminders?
- Sticky notes or spoken reminders?
- Paper diary or reminder app?
- Carer visits or daily check-ins?
- Family rota or reminder service?
- Phone alarms or a reminder service?
- Shared calendar or reminder service?
- Text or voice reminders?
- Compared to dementia clocks
- Dementia clocks or spoken reminders?
- Personal alarms or check-in reminders?
Devices, alarms and telecare
What is worth buying, and what quietly gathers dust.