Information for Carers

A carer is anyone who looks after a family member, partner or friend with a long-term illness, disability or substance misuse issue.  Carers are men, women or children of any age from all sectors of the community.  Carers are unpaid and provide help with shopping, meal preparation, visiting, attending appointments, personal care and much, much more.

Adur and Worthing Carers Support:

Carers Support West Sussex has recently made some changes which may affect your contact with them. These changes have been driven by what carers have told them they would like to see.

They have re-structured their teams who are now based around the 7 districts in West Sussex and sit alongside our assessment and hospital teams. Carers will continue to have opportunities to attend carer groups, carer learning and training, and have access to grants and equipment, counselling services, discount card and contingency planning.

“When carers contact us, they will speak with one of our dedicated Response Line team who will provide information and guidance, and if needed, will refer the carer to the appropriate Locality Team for additional 1:1 support. This may include co-producing a personal plan to support them with their caring role and managing their own wellbeing and/or linking them into specialist local services. If it’s helpful for carers, we can offer a specific time for a call from us in one of our regular Carer Surgeries throughout the week and are in the process of finding suitable venues to be able to offer face-to-face appointments in the community as well”

Carers can still refer themselves by the following ways:
T: 0300 028 8888
E: info@carerssupport.org.uk
Or via our website: www.carerssupport.org.uk

Free access to tailored digital resources to support unpaid carers

Working with leading national charity Carers UK, we are giving unpaid carers free access to new digital resources. The Digital Resource for Carers is an online platform that hosts a wealth of resources for carers to help them build resilience in their caring role.

The resources can help primary care to deliver on the NHS Long Term Plan Commitments to unpaid carers and includes e-learning, guides and comprehensive signposting, access to MyBackUp, a simple contingency planning tool for what might happen in an emergency, and Jointly, Carers UK’s care co-ordination app.

Carers UK have published guidance for health professionals which explains how the offer works and includes an access code to provide unpaid carers as well as ideas and tips for how to refer them for support.

Free PPE for unpaid carers:
It is important that Infection, Prevention, Control measures continue to be followed. Currently, it is recommended that unpaid carers not living with the person they care for wear PPE when delivering care. These unpaid carers are eligible to receive free COVID-19 PPE through local authorities (LAs) and local resilience forums (LRFs) until the end of March 2022. Additionally, LAs/ LRFs may use discretion to provide PPE to co-resident unpaid carers if appropriate.

Useful links:

https://www.guildcare.org/

https://www.carersuk.org/

http://www.crossroadscare-sc.org/

https://www.carerssupport.org.uk/

sussexcommunity.nhs.uk/carers