Specialist Alzheimer’s home care in London is in-home, person-centred care delivered by carers trained specifically for Alzheimer’s disease, designed to allow the person to remain in familiar surroundings for as long as it is the right choice clinically and emotionally. Tidal Living delivers Alzheimer’s home care in London as a CQC-regulated, dementia-focused domiciliary care agency, founded by Sabbir Ahmed, a UKCP-registered psychotherapist with decades of NHS experience. We work in four main formats; hourly visiting care, overnight care, full live-in placements, and dedicated Alzheimer’s respite, with NICE-recommended Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) included as standard and a fixed-rotation continuity model of two or three named carers per household. London rates in 2026 typically range from £30 to £40 per hour for visiting care, and from around £1,400 to £2,100+ per week for live-in care.
If a family member has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, you are likely already noticing how few of the conversations you are having give you anything useful to act on. Diagnoses are delivered, leaflets are handed over, and then the door closes. The work of actually building a life around the diagnosis tends to fall to the family.
This guide is written for families across London who are at that stage. It explains what specialist Alzheimer’s home care in London actually involves, why it differs from general elderly care, what it costs in 2026, how to fund it, and how to choose between an Alzheimer’s home carer who is trained for the condition and one who has simply been told they will be working with someone who has it. We have written it from our standpoint as a London-based, dementia-focused domiciliary care agency led by a UKCP-registered psychotherapist, and the perspective is unapologetically clinical. Alzheimer’s is not a synonym for ageing. Care that treats it as one is care that fails.
What is Alzheimer’s home care?
Alzheimer’s home care is specialist, in-home support that allows a person with Alzheimer’s disease to remain in their own home for as long as it is the right choice clinically and emotionally. It is delivered by carers trained specifically for Alzheimer’s, includes personalised care plans, cognitive stimulation, behavioural support, and personal care, and is designed around continuity of carer and continuity of routines.
That definition contains three things worth pulling apart.
First, it is delivered at home. Almost every piece of credible research on Alzheimer’s outcomes points to the same conclusion: people with Alzheimer’s tend to do better in environments that have not changed. Familiar smells, familiar furniture, the same morning light through the same window, a partner sleeping in the same room. Moving someone with Alzheimer’s into an unfamiliar setting, even briefly, almost always produces a measurable step-change in confusion called transfer trauma. Home care, done well, is what allows that step to be deferred or avoided entirely.
Second, the carers are specifically trained for Alzheimer’s. There is a meaningful difference between a carer who has completed a one-hour induction module on dementia and a carer who has worked through a Tier 2 or Tier 3 dementia qualification, has been observed in practice, and receives clinical supervision. The first is what most agencies in London mean when they say “all our carers are trained in dementia”. The second is what specialist Alzheimer’s home care London should mean.
Third, the goal is continuity at home. Specialist Alzheimer’s home care is not just visiting. It is care that maintains the person’s identity, routines, and dignity across what can be a long disease trajectory.
Types of Alzheimer’s home care services in London
Tidal Living delivers specialist Alzheimer’s home care across London in four main formats. Most families start with one and migrate between them as the disease progresses, with the same trusted carers carrying continuity through.
Hourly visiting Alzheimer’s care is where trained Alzheimer’s carers visit the home for set blocks, from a one-hour wellbeing check to multiple six-hour visits per day. This is best for early and middle stages and for families who want to start light and build up.
Overnight Alzheimer’s care involvesa dedicated overnight carer keeping the person safe and engaged through the difficult evening and small hours, whilst the family carer sleeps. This is available as sleeping-night or waking-night cover.
In live-in Alzheimer’s care, a carer moves into the home full-time, with appropriate rest, providing 24-hour support. This is delivered as a fixed rotation of two named carers for continuity, never as a rotating bank of strangers.
Finally, Alzheimer’s respite care involves short-term cover from a single overnight visit up to several weeks. Most of our respite happens in the person’s own home rather than in a respite facility, because moving someone with Alzheimer’s often triggers transfer trauma.
You can read about the trade-offs between the benefits and drawbacks of these different care formats on our flexible dementia care options page.
What specialist Alzheimer’s home care includes
A complete specialist Alzheimer’s home care package in London is built from a small number of components. Some are obvious. Some are routinely missing from generic packages, and their absence is what families later identify as the reason care did not work.
The foundation of specialised Alzheimer’s home care is a personalised care plan written specifically for Alzheimer’s, referencing the stage of disease, known triggers, communication preferences, sleep pattern, food preferences, and the specific people and objects that anchor the person.
This is delivered by specialist Alzheimer’s carers with Tier 2 or Tier 3 dementia training, observed in practice, and supervised by Sabbir Ahmed, a UKCP-registered psychotherapist.
Sabbir also supervises the dementia intervention Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST), which is NICE-recommended for mild to moderate Alzheimer’s. This is delivered as part of our standard offer rather than as a paid extra.
Our specialised home care includes behavioural support, framed clinically. Refusal, agitation, hallucination, repetitive questioning, and wandering are treated as communication, not as failures of cooperation. It is important to note that Alzheimer’s changes the experience of being touched, undressed, and washed, and generic personal care delivered without this awareness is one of the most common triggers of distress. At Tidal Living, we commit to an operational understanding of this reality, in addition to maintaining continuity of carer (two or three named carers across each package) and providing family work where families are provided honest feedback on dementia trajectory, support before deterioration worsens, and facilitating a clear point of contact for relatives.
Cost of Alzheimer’s home care in London (2026)
Cost transparency matters more in dementia care than in almost any other field, because families are weighing decisions over years rather than weeks. London rates are roughly 24% higher than the UK national average due to higher local wages.
| Service type | Typical London rate (2026) | Key features |
| Hourly visiting Alzheimer’s care | £30 – £40 per hour | Personal care, medication support, cognitive engagement, companionship |
| Overnight care (sleeping-night) | £130 – £180 per night | Carer present and able to attend if needed, but able to rest |
| Overnight care (waking-night) | £200 – £280 per night | Carer awake throughout, active monitoring and support |
| Live-in Alzheimer’s care (standard) | £1,400 – £1,700 per week | 24-hour cover, two named carers in fixed rotation, all routine care |
| Live-in Alzheimer’s care (complex) | £1,800 – £2,100+ per week | Advanced-stage Alzheimer’s, palliative-stage support, clinical oversight |
| Alzheimer’s respite care | Format-priced as above | From a single overnight visit to multiple weeks of full live-in respite |
We provide an exact quote at the assessment stage and we do not adjust upwards afterwards. Costs that are sometimes hidden by other agencies, including the live-in carer’s food and accommodation, the cost of a backup carer for the carer’s own time off, mileage outside the standard area, and specialist equipment, should always be on the table from the start. Anything you are quoted should be inclusive of these unless explicitly broken out.
How to fund Alzheimer’s home care in London
Most London families self-fund some or all of their Alzheimer’s home care, but several legitimate funding routes exist and are routinely under-claimed.
- Attendance Allowance: This is a non-means-tested benefit for people of State Pension age who need help with personal care or supervision because of disability. Alzheimer’s qualifies. Paid at two rates, currently up to £108.55 per week (higher rate, 2026).
- Carer’s Allowance: This is a separate benefit for the family carer where they provide at least 35 hours of care per week and meet income criteria.
- Local authority funding: This is means-tested but still worth pursuing. Capital threshold excludes the family home where a partner is still living there.
- Direct Payments: This allows you to receive local authority funding as cash and commission a private dementia specialist such as Tidal Living, rather than being assigned to a council-commissioned generalist agency.
- NHS Continuing Healthcare: This is fully funded NHS care for people with the highest level of need. Rarely awarded for Alzheimer’s alone but possible where Alzheimer’s is combined with significant physical health needs.
- Carer’s Assessment: This is a free statutory assessment of the family carer’s needs, requested through your local authority. Can result in respite or other support being commissioned by the council.
We are not a financial adviser, and we will not pretend to be. What we can do is make sure the assessment paperwork accurately describes the level of need, which often makes the difference between a funding decision that comes through and one that does not.
Why specialist Alzheimer’s care differs from general elderly care
Alzheimer’s disease has a characteristic shape. It tends to begin with short-term memory loss and gradually expand to involve language, spatial awareness, recognition of familiar faces, motor function, and ultimately swallowing and continence. Each stage calls for different skills.
In the early stage, the person typically retains insight, can articulate frustration, and is at significant risk of social withdrawal and depression. Alzheimer’s home carers at this stage are doing companionship and cognitive engagement work that is closer to therapy than to personal care. CST is delivered routinely.
In the middle stage, the work shifts toward maintaining routines, managing escalating confusion, supporting personal care without distress, and recognising sundowning, which is the late-afternoon and evening agitation that affects a majority of people with Alzheimer’s at some point. A carer trained for Alzheimer’s anticipates sundowning. A carer who is not, fights with it.
In the late stage, the work becomes more clinical, with greater involvement of nursing, palliative considerations, swallowing safety, pressure-area care, and dignity at end of life. The continuity built across the earlier stages is what makes this stage tolerable for the family.
You can read more about how Alzheimer’s compares to other dementias on our types of dementia page. The differences between Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, and frontotemporal dementia are not academic. They change what good care looks like.
London boroughs we cover
Tidal Living provides Alzheimer’s home care across central London and the surrounding boroughs. Our regular coverage includes:
- Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Camden, Islington, Hackney
- Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham, Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham
- Richmond upon Thames, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton
- Brent, Ealing, Hounslow, Harrow, Hillingdon
- Barnet, Enfield, Haringey
- Tower Hamlets, Newham, Greenwich, Bromley, Croydon
Coverage of further-out boroughs and bordering areas is available and usually arranged at the assessment stage. We deliberately keep teams local so that the same two or three Alzheimer’s home carers can attend each household reliably.
How to choose an Alzheimer’s home care provider in London
The London care market is large and uneven. The questions below, asked at the first conversation, will tell you most of what you need to know.
- Are you CQC-regulated? Care Quality Commission registration is mandatory in England, and the published reports are detailed. Always check the most recent inspection.
- What proportion of your carers have Alzheimer’s-specific training, and what does it consist of? Tier 2 or Tier 3 is meaningful. A one-hour induction is not.
- Who provides clinical oversight? A registered manager is required by law. A clinical lead, specialist dementia nurse, or psychotherapist is what marks out a service that takes Alzheimer’s seriously.
- What is your continuity model? Ask for the actual policy. A real model has named carers, not promises.
- How quickly can you start in an emergency? Realistic answers in London range from a few hours to a couple of weeks.
- What happens if the person with Alzheimer’s refuses care? The answer should describe a graduated, rapport-building approach, not “we leave and call the family”.
- Can we meet the carer before they start? You should always be able to, and you should always be able to request a different carer without it being awkward.
For the deeper version of this checklist, including how to evaluate continuity claims and what to ask about clinical supervision, see our guide to finding the right dementia home carer in London.
About Tidal Living
| Tidal Living is a CQC-regulated, London-based, dementia-focused domiciliary care agency. Founded by Sabbir Ahmed, a UKCP-registered psychotherapist with decades of NHS experience. Specialises in Alzheimer’s home care, dementia respite care, live-in dementia care, and overnight dementia care across central London and surrounding boroughs. Operates a fixed-rotation continuity model with two or three named carers per household. Delivers NICE-recommended Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) as part of every package where stage allows. Free no-obligation assessments, with emergency starts within 24 hours where needed. Phone: 0203 576 1970. |
You can read more about how we approach specialist dementia care on our dementia care hub page.
Local support and resources for families
Specialist Alzheimer’s home care is one part of a wider support landscape. Families in London should know about the following resources, which we routinely point people toward.
- Alzheimer’s Society: This is a UK-wide charity offering support groups, dementia support forums, and the Dementia Connect support line for families across London.
- Age UK: Provides information on local authority services, advocacy, and funding routes for older people with dementia.
- Dementia Carers Count: UK charity providing professional support and expert-led courses specifically for family members caring for someone with dementia.
- NHS Dementia Services: Guidance on memory clinic referrals, post-diagnostic support, and applying for NHS Continuing Healthcare.
- Care Quality Commission (CQC): This is the national regulator for all care providers in England. Always check a provider’s most recent CQC inspection report before commissioning care.
- Carehome.co.uk: This is a directory listing of dementia care services in London, useful for cross-referencing CQC ratings and reviews.
The first 30 days: how we start an Alzheimer’s home care package
Most families describe the first two weeks of arranging care as the hardest. The disease is still settling, roles inside the household are still shifting, and information arrives faster than it can be absorbed. The way we structure the early period at Tidal Living is designed to take some of that weight off.
Day 1: Free assessment. This is conducted at home, by phone, or by video, and lasts for around an hour. We discuss the diagnosis, the household, the family carer’s situation, and realistic options.
Days 2–5: Written care plan. This is drafted from the assessment, and is yours to keep. Updated as the disease changes.
Days 5–10: Carer matching. We name the specific Alzheimer’s home carers we propose for your package, share their backgrounds, and arrange for the household to meet them before they start.
Days 10–30: Gradual onboarding. For most packages, we recommend starting lighter than the family thinks they need and building up. A first week of two-hour visits is often more useful than an immediate full live-in care commitment.
We have written more about this stage in our guide to starting a family member’s dementia care at home.
Final Notes
If you are weighing up specialist Alzheimer’s home care for someone you love in London, the first call costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If a different option turns out to be the right one, we will say so honestly on the initial call.
Call Tidal Living on 0203 576 1970, or visit our dementia care hub to see the full picture of how we support families across London.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Alzheimer’s home care cost in London?
Hourly visiting Alzheimer’s care in London typically costs £30 to £40 per hour in 2026. Live-in Alzheimer’s care ranges from £1,400 to £2,100+ per week depending on disease complexity. Overnight care is £130 to £280 per night. Tidal Living provides exact quotes at assessment with no upward adjustment.
Is Alzheimer’s home care better than a care home?
For most people with Alzheimer’s, yes. Familiar environments produce measurably better outcomes, and moving someone with Alzheimer’s into an unfamiliar setting often causes transfer trauma. This represents a step-change in confusion that takes weeks to recover from. We discuss this in our home care versus care home guide.
How quickly can Alzheimer’s home care be arranged in London?
Planned Alzheimer’s home care in London is usually arranged within one to two weeks. Emergency Alzheimer’s home care can begin within 24 to 48 hours in most parts of London, and within four hours in genuine crises.
Can the same Alzheimer’s home carer come every visit?
Yes. Tidal Living operates a fixed-rotation continuity model with two or three named carers per household. This is not always the industry norm, so it is worth asking other London providers explicitly about their continuity policy.
Do you offer Alzheimer’s respite care?
Yes. We deliver short-term Alzheimer’s respite as hourly cover, overnight visits, or full live-in respite from one day to several weeks. Most respite happens in the person’s own home rather than in a respite facility, because moving someone with Alzheimer’s often triggers transfer trauma.
What if my parent refuses an Alzheimer’s home carer?
Refusal is common in early and middle Alzheimer’s and almost always reflects fear or loss of control rather than opposition. Specialist Alzheimer’s home carers are trained to build rapport gradually, often starting with companionship-style visits before introducing personal care.
Is Alzheimer’s home care covered by the NHS?
NHS Continuing Healthcare can fund Alzheimer’s care fully when needs meet the threshold, but it is rarely awarded for Alzheimer’s alone. Most London families self-fund or combine self-funding with Attendance Allowance, local authority funding, and Direct Payments.
Is Tidal Living CQC-regulated?
Yes. Tidal Living is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the statutory regulator for all care providers in England. Every Alzheimer’s home care provider in London must hold current CQC registration to operate legally.
Which London boroughs does Tidal Living cover?
Tidal Living covers Central London and surrounding boroughs including Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Camden, Islington, Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham, Richmond, Kingston, and Brent with bordering areas available on request.
What is Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST)?
Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) is a NICE-recommended structured group activity programme for people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s and dementia. Tidal Living delivers CST as part of every Alzheimer’s home care package where the disease stage supports it, at no extra cost.
