Carers Information

What is a Carer?

A Carer is a person of any age, adult or child, who provides unpaid support to a partner, child, relative or friend who couldn't manage to live independently or whose health or wellbeing would deteriorate without this help. This could be due to frailty, disability or serious health condition, mental ill health or substance misuse.

Carers provide extremely valuable support to the people they look after.

Help & Support is Available

It is widely recognised that the contribution of carers is vital to the delivery of both health and social care. Around 6,000 people take on the role of caring every day.

It is also widely recognised that caring can take its toll and we work hard to develop and improve our services for carers.

Carer Support Plan

A Carer Support Plan is a conversation between a Carer Worker and the carergiver about the role they carry out for someone else and for which they are not paid. This may be a friend, relative, partner or neighbour.

A support plan will look at the carers immediate needs and try to access the help that is needed for them to continue caring. It is important that the conversation recognises the need for carers to have some time to themselves for their own hobbies and interests.

Connecting Carers have local Carer Workers who will work with you one to one to produce a personal carer support plan. They understand that lots of different things impact on a person's caring role and the role itself will have an impact on many aspects of a carer’s life.

These might include:

Effect on carers' own health
Other relationships e.g. are you losing touch with friends?
Paid work?
Do you have space to do some things for yourself?
What happens in an emergency?
Do you know if you are receiving all the benefits you are eligible for?

The Carer Worker will talk this all through with you and together you can work out what can be done to improve the situation. This can involve many courses of action as caring roles can be very different and some are very complicated but most can be made a little more manageable.

As circumstances change so too will the role of the carer. Regular review dates will be set to ensure that the Carer Support Plan remains relevant, helpful and effective.

If you would like to find out about how a Carer Support Plan could be of use to you please contact the Carers Support Line on 01463 723560 or email carers@hccf.org.uk

Carer Support Plans are arranged by Connecting Carers who delivery Carers Centre Services across Highland

Young Carers

Connecting Young Carers works with and provides information and support to children and young people aged 5-24 who provide care, assistance or support to a parent, sibling, grandparent or other person who is affected by a physical disability, learning disability, sensory impairment, physical or mental illness, drug or alcohol problem or other condition.

We cover Lochaber, Ross-shire, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.

What do we offer?

Information service to Young Carers across these areas
The opportunity to take part in our social activities during school holiday times.
Our regular newsletter Clatterbags helps to keep Young Carers up to date with what is happening across the Highlands!

For Young Carers who are over 13 we also have a Facebook page where they can ask questions, talk to a member of staff or get support for specific issues that are bothering them. We also use Facebook to advertise activities that are going on or to update Young Carers on issues that may affect them.

https://www.facebook.com/connecting.carers.7

Kinship Carers ( care of children by relatives or family friends)

The Highland Kinship Care Support Service offers support and advice to kinship carers. The service can include

individual advice and emotional support
links for your family into community activities
programmes of support and learning for carers
help to establish peer support groups
Family Group Meetings to rally the wider family in support of the child's placement
a "survival guide" booklet with handy advice and information for kinship carers
access to the National Kinship Care Helpline for advice, support and information in evenings and at weekends

Tel 01381 620 757 or visit www.children1st.org.uk

Kinship Care Helpline at ParentLine Scotland - Tel 0800 28 22 33 - open seven days a week, 365 days a year.