Advice available for unpaid carers

News - 23 November 2017

The community bus, MAVIS, will be in Weston town centre on Friday (24 November) promoting the help available for unpaid carers in North Somerset.
Healthwatch stand by the community bus

Staff from North Somerset Council, Carers’ Support Alliance, Alzheimer’s Society, Avon and Wiltshire Partnership (AWP) and Positive Step will be on board giving information to unpaid carers as part of Carers’ Rights Day.

Carers’ Rights Day is an annual national event which aims to raise awareness of carers’ issues. Anyone is welcome to visit MAVIS to find out more about the help and support available to carers in North Somerset.

Kathryn Benjamin, Carers’ Lead at North Somerset Council said: “Many people don’t see themselves as an unpaid carer. An unpaid carer is someone who looks after someone else who could not manage without this help. To them they’re just looking after a spouse ‘in sickness and in health’, or a parent who is getting older and less able. Unfortunately it can be easy to reach crisis point if things become difficult or stressful. We hope to help people avoid this situation by getting information to them so that even if they feel that they don’t need support now, they will know how and where to get help at the right time in the future.”

To mark Carers’ Rights Day, AWP is also launching their new Family, Friends and Carers Charter booklet on the day. Caring for someone who has a mental health condition can be challenging, time-consuming, exhausting, emotional and, if recovery is in sight, rewarding. But when the focus is on the person experiencing mental distress, the needs, rights and contributions of carers often get overlooked. It’s easy for carers to feel isolated and overwhelmed and the booklet aims to clarify the support available.

Carers are incredibly important. As well as giving emotional and practical support day-to-day, they often provide information and perspectives to clinicians that are critical to successful treatment. A carer may also be the key to successful engagement between service users and clinical services. But the pressures on carers are considerable and this can affect their own health and wellbeing. This new booklet will help carers to understand their rights, the support and help they are entitled to and how to access it – and the ways in which AWP is committed to supporting them.

AWP chief executive Dr Hayley Richard

The MAVIS bus will be parked at Big Lamp Corner in Weston from 11am to 3pm on Friday 24th November

For more events that the MAVIS bus will be attending please get in touch

contact@healthwatchnorthsomerset.co.uk

01275 851 400

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