Are you looking after a relative? A friend? A neighbour ?
Are you a Carer?
You may not see yourself as one, but if you
are supporting a relative or friend of any
age who fits one or more of the descriptions
below, then you are a Carer.
They: are elderly and frail
- have a learning disability
- have mental health issues
- have a history of substance misuse
- have a serious health condition
Did you know that there is a range of
support available to you, which will
help you look after yourself as well as
the loved one you care for?
Here at Trentside our Carers Champion is Sherry and she happy for you to call her on 0115 9403775 option 5. Sherry works Monday Tuesdays Thursdays and Fridays.
We need to keep our Carers register updated so please let the practice know if you are a Carer. During the Flu season (September-February) we offer flu vaccines to all our Carers no matter what age, so please let us know.
What kind of support and
services do we provide?
The Nottinghamshire Carers Hub can offer:
- Information, advice and guidance
- Signposting to other organisations
- Short break accommodation
- Access to Carers support groups
- Free gym memberships
- Access to Carers breaks
- Free training and caring support
- ‘Carers Smart’ benefits and discounts
- Carers grants
- Peer support
How can we help you?
Funded by Nottinghamshire County
Council and the local NHS, Carers
Trust East Midlands provides a range
of support and services which can
be accessed via the
Nottinghamshire
Carers Hub.
By contacting our Helpdesk on
0115 824 8824, you can speak to an experienced
support worker who will provide a personalised
service that meets your individual needs.
Call us: 0115 824 8824
Email us: hub@carerstrustem.org
Connect with us: CTEastMidlands
@CarersTrustEM
Visit our website: www.carerstrustem.org/hub
Nottinghamshire County Council funds Carers Federation to give
advice and support to carers across Nottinghamshire.
When you contact this service a carer support worker will identify
the support most appropriate to your situation. If you are seeking
information, they will try to provide this for you or point you in the
direction of an organisation that is able to provide more specific
help – for example when the person you care for has a condition
such as Alzheimer’s or has had a stroke.
Carers Federation offer a number things to help carers,
these include:
- individual one to one support
- telephone helpline support
- access to mentoring (particularly for younger adult carers who
are managing the demands of work/education as well as
caring)
- group support
- help with benefits and form filling to ensure you receive
entitlements
- referral to Adult Social Care for a carer’s assessment
- information about your rights and a trained advocate to
support you if you are struggling to get the system to
hear you.
CARERS ASSESSMENT
If you care for someone you have a right to ask for a carer’s
assessment. The assessment will look at the impact that caring
has on you and the support that you may need.
Caring may have an affect on you, for example your health,
work, social life, finance, education, family and personal life. It
is important that you know what help is available to help you
balance your caring life with a life of your own.
The assessment is about you, not the person you care for. You
can have a carer assessment whether or not the person you
care for has had a community care assessment.
Why should I have a carer’s assessment?
There are a number of benefits to having a carers assessment,
these include:
- access to a personal budget – funding for you to have time
away from your caring role
- access to short breaks – enabling you and the person you
care for to have a short break
- access to advice and information about services including the
emergency card and other services and schemes funded by
Nottinghamshire County Council to support carers
- access to advice from trained staff who can signpost you on
to local and national services that exist to help and support
you.
How do I get a carer’s assessment?
To ask for a carer’s assessment:
telephone: 0300 500 80 80
email: enquiries@nottscc.gov.uk
You or someone else, such as a social care or healthcare worker
(for example doctor, mental health professional, social worker,
care coordinator) can do this for you.
When you contact us you will need to give some basic
information about you and the person that you care for, such as
name, address and date of birth.
You can choose to have an assessment on your own or with the
person that you care for, it can be done at your home or in any
other suitable place.
You are welcome to have a friend or relative with you to help you
explain your needs.
Will I need to pay for services?
There is no charge for support provided as a result of a carer’s
assessment.
Carers can contact the Carers Support Service
call: 0300 500 80 80
email: enquiries@nottscc.gov.uk
web: nottinghamshire.gov.uk/carers
CARERS EMERGENCY CARD
The Carers Emergency Card is a free small card that identifies
you as a carer in an emergency situation. It will alert anyone
finding the card to the fact that you are a carer and that
someone you care for may require assistance. In the event of an
emergency you will have peace of mind that there is a 24-hour
system in place to ensure that the person you care for is looked
after.
We will issue you with a card that you can carry with you at all
times. There is a telephone number on the card that will connect
the caller to the Customer Service Centre or the out of hours
Emergency Duty Team – this gives 24 hour cover for 7 days a
week.
When you sign up for the card you’ll be asked to nominate
people who could be contacted in an emergency to help make
arrangements for the person that you care for. You can also
provide other information, for example medical details and advice
regarding access to the home. We record this information and
treat it with the utmost confidence.
If something happens to you and someone rings the number, our
staff will respond immediately by trying to contact the people that
you have nominated.
If our staff are able to locate your emergency contact(s) they will
discuss arrangements regarding the person you care for. If
necessary, adult social care staff will be involved in helping to
arrange suitable support.
If none of the nominated people can be contacted, adult social
care staff will ensure care is provided for the person you care for.
To ask for an emergency card please contact our Carers
Support Service on 0300 500 80 80 or
email enquiries@nottscc.gov.uk
Carers can contact the Carers Support Service on
call: 0300 500 80 80
email: enquiries@nottscc.gov.uk
web: nottinghamshire.gov.uk/carers
Help in a crisis
The Crisis Prevention Scheme enables the person you care for
to be looked after in their home if you have an unforeseen or
emergency situation. The service is available to all adult carers
(over 18) where the ‘cared for’ person lives in Nottinghamshire
(except Nottingham city residents).
Some examples of crisis situations where the scheme could
provide support include:
- your admission into hospital
- you need to attend an unplanned doctors appointment
- you need to attend an unplanned medical appointment
- you have a family emergency, including another family member
becoming seriously ill and requires help or attention
- there is significant risk to your employment on a particular
occasion
- the funeral of a friend or close relative.
This is not a complete list but gives guidance on the sort of
situations where the Crisis Prevention Scheme could help.
The Crisis Prevention Scheme is available across all districts
and is provided by Home Based Care providers funded by
Nottinghamshire County Council. Here is a list of your local
scheme providers:
Ashfield
Care UK Homecare 0333 999 7628
Mansfield
Care UK Homecare 0333 999 7628
Bassetlaw
Comfort Call 01909 768196
Newark
Comfort Call 01636 858675
Broxtowe
Direct Health 0115 896 4005
Gedling
Agincare UK 0115 8470015
Rushcliffe
Agincare UK 0115 847 0015
When calling your local scheme provider please ask for the
Crisis Prevention Service.
Carers can contact the Carers Support Service on
call: 0300 500 80 80
email: enquiries@nottscc.gov.uk
web: nottinghamshire.gov.uk/carers.
Carers personal budget
A Carers Personal Budget is a payment of up to £200 to help
carers look after their own health and wellbeing. To see if you
are eligible for a personal budget you will need to have a carer’s
assessment to look at what your needs are.
A Carers Personal Budget can be used for lots of things,
for example:
- funding towards the cost of holidays, weekends away, days
out, spa days
- transport for a break away or visiting family
- funding for a hobby e.g. fishing, golf, cooking, exercise
equipment
- college courses
- driving lessons
- home improvements, gardening, domestic help
- equipment to help caring, for example a washing machine,
dishwasher
- funding to support a return to work.
How much you could get
We will take your individual circumstances into account when we
work out how much your Carers Personal Budget will be.
We will look at what you want to achieve with the money, such
as getting fit or having an active social life. W e give priority to
carers where there is a significant risk of the caring role brea king
down.
Not everyone gets the same amount, and it won’t necessarily
cover everything you want. We need to make sure that the
decisions we make about personal budgets are consistent, fair
and based on need.
The Carers Personal Budget is limited to one per year. The
payment is non-taxable and will not be taken into account for
benefit purposes.
Carers can contact the Carers Support Service on
call: 0300 500 80 80
email: enquiries@nottscc.gov.uk
web: nottinghamshire.gov.uk/carers
SHORT BREAKS FOR CARERS
The NHS in Nottinghamshire funds breaks for carers. To receive
a break you first need to have a carer ’s assessment from
Nottinghamshire County Council and have been assessed as
meeting the criteria for a break (for more information about this
call the Carer Support Service on 0300 500 80 80).
The person that you care for does not need to be assessed for
an ‘NHS carer break’. The breaks usually take the form of ‘oneoff’
residential or home-based services.
As the funding is provided by NHS Nottinghamshire, the carer
and the person cared for must be resident in Nottinghamshire
County (except Nottingham City). The carer and the person
cared for must also be registered with a Nottinghamshire County
GP (except Nottingham City).
For more information on the Nottinghamshire Short Breaks Policy,
please contact 0300 500 80 80 for a copy of the policy.
Carers can contact the Carers Support Service on
call: 0300 500 80 80
email: enquiries@nottscc.gov.uk
web: nottinghamshire.gov.uk/carers
Young carers
Are you between 5 and 24 years old and looking
after someone?
It can feel good to help. It may mean that you:
- help with tasks such as washing, or shopping, dressing or
taking medicines
- provide emotional and/or practical support
- help to manage the behaviour of someone
- provide support by ‘keeping an eye’ on someone.
If you are looking after your mum, dad, grandparent, brother
or sister, that person may need help because of their illness or
disability. The person you look after can have a community care
assessment for their needs.
Help and Support for You
As a young person caring for someone you may be entitled
to support. If you would like to talk about the care that you are
providing, please contact the Early Help Unit and ask for a Young
Carers Assessment.
Following your own assessment you may be offered more help:
- assistance towards going on a school trip or holiday
- assistance towards school/college activities
- leisure activities; spending time with friends.
- help towards hobbies and interests
- equipment to help with your education e.g. books, computer
- help towards employment opportunities.
If you are caring for someone and need help get in touch and
talk to us. We’ll look at what support you need and what we
can offer. Even if we can’t help directly we may know other
organisations that can help.
Young Carers or people supporting a young carer can contact
the Early Help Unit for more help and advice.
call: 01623 433500
email: early.help@nottscc.gov.uk
web: nottinghamshire.gov.uk/youngcarers
post: Early Help Unit
Meadow House
Littleworth
Mansfield
Nottinghamshire
NG18 2TB
Other resources for Young Carers include:
www.youngcarers.net
www.nhs.uk/carersdirect/young/Pages/
Youngcarershome.aspx
www.youngcarer.com
Care4me is a scheme that provides a range of services with the aim of improving the health and wellbeing of carers and those for whom they care. This scheme is coordinated by Gedling Homes in partnership with Nottingham North and East Clinical Commissioning Group, the Carers Federation and other partners.
The services we offer broadly fall into one of five categories. Health & wellbeing support; social inclusion; practical support; home modifications and access support.
We have information on local health walks and exercise classes in Gedling if you would like to become more active. Or if you are a man aged 60+ you might be interested in the Men in Sheds drop-in sessions to work on your carpentry skills over a cuppa. Perhaps you would like to become more IT literate so you can order shopping or do banking online? If so we have a tutor who provides regular beginners IT classes.
If you or the person you care for has a long term health condition such as stroke, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) or heart problems, there are classes that can help. We also have home exercise booklets, information re falls prevention and can provide manual handling training to help prevent injury.
The Young Person’s Positive Moves programme is available for 8-15 year olds who are inactive and have conditions such as autism or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Finally we have a limited budget to adapt your home to meet your needs depending on the outcome of an occupational therapist’s referral.
To enable you to access these services we can provide transport and respite care (we can arrange to have a qualified care provider look after the person you care for). For more information about care4me please contact Karen Archer at Gedling Homes on 0115 9051519 or Karen.Archer@gedlinghomes.co.uk