Personal and Nursing Care
What is Personal and
Nursing Care?
How do I get
it?
What does it
cost?
Find out
more
What is Personal and
Nursing Care?
Personal Care refers to anything done for you that is of a personal nature such as
- Personal Hygiene - bathing, showering, hair washing, shaving, oral hygiene, nail care
- Continence Management - toileting, catheter/stoma care, skin care, incontinence laundry, bed changing
- Food and Diet - assistance with eating and assistance with special diets.
- Assistance with food preparation.
- Problems of Immobility - dealing with the consequences of being immobile or substantially immobile
- Counselling and Support - behaviour management, psychological support, reminding devices
- Simple Treatments - assistance with medication (including eye drops), application of creams and lotions, simple dressings, oxygen therapy
- Personal Assistance - assistance with dressing, surgical appliances, prostheses, mechanical and manual aids; assistance to get up and to go to bed; transfers including the use of a hoist.
Nursing Care is anything which involves the knowledge or
skills of a qualified nurse.
How do I get it?
To access personal and nursing care from your Local Authority, ask your Social Work Department for a Assessment of your Care Needs. You can also ask your GP, district nurse or health visitor to arrange an assessment of your care needs for you.
Your needs will be discussed with you during a home visit and the Social Work Department will let you know afterwards in writing what assistance it is able to offer you to meet your assessed needs. For more information about the assessment, see our page on Assessment of your Care Needs.
The Social Work Department may provide the personal care itself, or it may arrange for a home care agency to provide this.
Even if you decide to arrange and pay for your own personal
care, it is still a good idea to get an Assessment of your Care
Needs, to ensure that all your care needs are fully assessed.
To privately arrange your own personal care, you should
contact a home care provider or home care agency. To arrange
private nursing care, contact a nursing agency.
The Care Inspectorate offer a directory which includes the home care providers (called "support services") and nursing agencies registered with them. All services registered with the Care Inspectorate are regularly inspected and the inspection reports can be viewed on their website:
The website of Scottish Care offers a directory of independent home care service providers:
What does it cost?
Nursing care provided by the NHS in your own home is free and should be provided by your GP's surgery.
Personal care provided by your Local Authority is free in Scotland if you are 65 and over. The right to free personal and nursing care in Scotland was set out in the following act:
Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002
Further information on free personal and nursing care can be found in the attached public information leaflet:
Free Personal and Nursing Care
If the care you are assessed as needing does not fall into the categories of personal care, then you may be charged for it.
If you are 65 and over and need personal and nursing care in a care home, you can receive a payment towards the personal and nursing care component of your fees. For more information, see the following section:
Personal and nursing care in a care home
Find out more
Further information is available on the Scottish Government website.
last updated 03/05/2012
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