Every summer the same advice does the rounds: close your curtains, open a window at night, keep a glass of water nearby, nip into the shade for ten minutes. It's good advice. But read it back and notice what it assumes. It assumes you can get up and close the curtains. It assumes you can walk to a cooler room, or out to the garden, or across the kitchen to refill your glass. For a lot of the families we work with across Kent, that assumption simply does not hold.

If someone in your household has limited mobility, whether that's a parent recovering from a fall, a partner living with a long-term condition, or someone who spends most of their day in one chair or one bed, none of the usual heatwave advice happens by itself. Someone has to do it for them, and it has to be planned rather than left to chance in the moment it's needed. That is the gap this article is written for. We'll go through curtains and windows, which room to use and when, the bedroom at night, what NHS guidance actually says about fans, and how to set the whole day up in the morning so nothing urgent is left until the hottest part of the afternoon.

The advice that assumes you can act on it yourself

Most hot weather guidance is written for someone fit enough to act on it there and then. NHS advice on coping in hot weather is genuinely good: close curtains on windows that get the sun, keep to the coolest room in the house, have a cool drink, splash your skin with cool water. All of it works, if you can physically do it whenever it's needed.

For someone who cannot get up unprompted, who cannot cross a room safely on their own, or who may not always recognise that they are too hot or too thirsty, that same advice needs a person behind it. That's the whole difference: not different advice, but a different way of making sure it actually happens.

Curtains and windows: getting the timing right

NHS advice on coping in hot weather is specific about timing. Close curtains or blinds on any window that gets direct sun during the day, and keep windows closed while it's cooler inside than out. Then, once the air outside drops below the temperature indoors, usually in the evening or overnight, open them up again if it's safe to do so.

That sounds simple, but it means two separate jobs a day, at two particular moments, not "whenever's convenient." If the person living in that room can't do it themselves, someone else needs to be watching the clock for them: curtains shut by mid-morning before the sun properly hits the glass, windows opened again once the evening cools down. Left until the room already feels like an oven, it's much harder to bring the temperature back down.

Choosing the right room, and moving downstairs if you need to

NHS guidance also suggests identifying the coolest room in the house in advance, and keeping out of strong sun between 11am and 3pm. Heat rises, so upstairs rooms, especially bedrooms under a roof, are often the warmest part of the house by early afternoon.

If someone spends most of the day in a chair or in bed, it's worth thinking honestly about whether downstairs is more comfortable during a heatwave, even temporarily. That might mean a favourite chair brought down for the day, or a daybed set up somewhere shaded. It only works if it's arranged with enough thought for safety: clear of trip hazards, close enough to the bathroom, and not attempted as a rushed decision once someone is already too hot to move easily.

Test it with your hand, not by guesswork

A useful habit is simply feeling different rooms with your own hand against a wall or window in the morning, before deciding where someone will spend the day. The room that "feels fine" at 9am is not always the one that stays coolest by 2pm.

The bedroom at night: the hardest part to get right

Night-time heat is often the hardest to manage, because it's when the body normally cools down to sleep well, and when help is least likely to be close by. If a bedroom has been holding heat all day, someone with limited mobility cannot simply get up, throw a window open, or move themselves somewhere cooler in the middle of the night.

This is why the bedroom needs sorting earlier in the day, not at bedtime. Curtains closed against the afternoon sun, lighter bedding laid out in advance, a drink left within easy reach, and a window opened once the evening air is genuinely cooler than the room, following the same NHS principle of only opening once outside is cooler than in.

Fans: helpful, but not a simple "leave it running" answer

Fans are the first thing most families reach for, and used well they do help. But it's worth being clear about what NHS and UKHSA guidance actually says, rather than assuming more fan is always better. A fan that keeps air moving can make someone feel more comfortable in warm weather. Once the air itself is very hot, though, a fan blowing that same hot air across someone's skin does not cool them down, and for someone who is older, frailer, or not moving around much, that can add to the risk of dehydration rather than easing it.

In practice, that means a fan is worth using thoughtfully rather than left running unattended for hours: positioned to move air around the room rather than blast directly at someone for a long stretch, and checked on rather than assumed to be doing its job. On the very hottest days, it's one tool alongside cooler clothing, closed curtains and plenty of fluids, not a substitute for any of them.

Setting it all up in the morning, so nothing needs doing at 3pm

The single most useful habit we see in families who manage a heatwave well is doing the thinking in the morning, before it gets hot, rather than reacting once it already has. UKHSA and the Met Office run the Heat-Health Alert system, so a quick check of the forecast first thing tells you whether today needs the full routine or just the ordinary one.

A simple morning routine covers curtains closed on the sun-facing side, the coolest room chosen and set up, water and a flannel left within reach, medication times checked against the hottest part of the day, and the fan positioned rather than just switched on. Once that's done, the middle of the afternoon, when someone may be drowsy, less inclined to ask for help, or simply alone for an hour, needs nothing urgent decided on the spot.

What a visiting carer can do on a hot day

When one of our carers visits a customer during a heatwave, a lot of what they do is exactly this kind of quiet checking: is the room set up properly, has water actually been drunk rather than just left on the side, does the fan need repositioning, are curtains still doing their job. It's gentle prompting rather than taking over, in keeping with how we train our team to support people rather than do everything for them. Encouraging someone to reach for their own glass, rather than simply handing it to them, still matters even in a heatwave; promoting independence and looking after someone properly are not in conflict.

Carers also know the person well enough to notice when something is off: more confused than usual, unusually quiet, skin that doesn't feel right. That's exactly the kind of early notice that makes the difference between a warm afternoon and a genuine problem.

If a loved one currently manages without daily support but a heatwave is the moment you're worried about, it's worth knowing what's available. We provide domiciliary care visits, live-in care for round-the-clock reassurance, and supported living for people who need more consistent day-to-day help, all across Kent.

When to get help beyond the home

Signposting matters here, so we'll keep this simple and point you the right way rather than guess. NHS guidance is clear: call 999 if someone has a fit (seizure), loses consciousness, or their symptoms of heat exhaustion do not improve within 30 minutes of cooling down and resting in a cool place. For anything less urgent but still worrying, NHS 111, or 111 online, is the right first call, and your GP practice can help too. None of this replaces a proper medical assessment, and we would never try to diagnose over the phone; our job is to notice, to help someone stay cool and comfortable, and to make sure the right call gets made quickly if it needs to be.

A last word

None of this is complicated once it's set up properly. It just needs someone thinking about it in the morning, on behalf of a person who cannot do that thinking or that moving for themselves. That's a lot of what home care is, quietly making sure the ordinary, sensible advice everyone already knows actually happens for the person who can't act on it alone.

If you're caring for someone in Kent this summer and a heatwave is the thing keeping you up at night, get in touch with our team. We're happy to talk through what support might help, with no pressure either way.