Carer"s support letter for DLA

I have friends who are my like carers and take it in turns along with neighbours help as well in looking after me 24/7 365 days, as I cannot be left alone unsuprtvised due to my health conditons which can decline at any time.They help with Physical care and support with washing, bathing,administering medication,cooking my meals, help in and out of bed,etc.... they physically support and hold me when walking as I am so weak.

CAN SOMEONE HELP ME AND ADVISE WHAT SORT OF THINGS MY FRIENDS SHOULD PUT IN THE LETTER? SHOULD THEY BE LONG DETAILED LETTERS? AND SHOULD THE LETTERS BE DIFFERENT IN READING? just so that then I can advise them what to write etc... Hope someone on here can help me please.

Thank you in advance"

When I did my letters, I wrote something down for each carer to give them food for thought.

You might want to think about what sort of care they give you and what they know about you. Does one help you with social activities and another help you with bathing and another with cooking?

When I did it, I drew up a table showing on the left what I wanted to establish I needed care with and for how long and on the right I listed who could provide evidence of what.

For example, you might want to show how far you can walk unsupported (or that you can't) and you might pick one or more carers that help you with walking to say about it.

The letters don't have to be the same length. The length will be determined by how much they know about your needs.

If they have particular difficulties drafting a letter, you might discuss with them what they want to say and then draw up an outline to give them a starting point, whilst ensuring that you don't encourage them to say anything that they don't know for themselves. That's to say the last thing you want is for the person that takes you out to be saying about your needs with eating when they don't see it for themselves, because you want honest, first-hand evidence.

Hi Alistair

If each one of your carers writes giving great detail the help they give you although the letters may say the same thing everyone see's or interprets things quite different, but hopefully what one person misses another will pick up on. For my DLA i was sent the four page form to complete. In addition to this i added 6 typed pages about the help that i need in great detail.

To assist you with this just follow the DLA information on this site. I was able to identify from that the area's i needed to explain in great depth. The only way to explain how much to include is to imagine the DM knows absoloutly nothing about you and what care and help you need. They look at the conditions you have and see what their handbook tells them (believe me they really dont delve any further) If you dont explain everything in detail they will use the handbook reference. Everyone of us are very different and so are our needs.

So, all in all if everyone writes in their own words what care they give you, plus your own detailed letter it will give the decision maker an overall view.

Hope this helps
Mm x