Category Archives: Carers

Identifying and supporting informal carers

Carers need to be encouraged to see themselves as carers

Young carer

Image credit: Produnis

In this guest post, Dr Emma Carduff and Dr Anne Finucane, co-authors on a new paper published today in BMC Family Practice explain why it’s important to support the carers of people approaching the end of their lives.

Approx. 10% of the UK population have an unpaid caring role for a family member or friend. Many of these carers make a significant contribution to supporting people who are approaching the end of their lives.  With increasing numbers of older and frailer people in the population, informal carers will play a vital role in caring for family members as health deteriorates and end of life approaches. In particular, care from informal carers, who are generally family members, is essential for those who wish to be cared for in their own home.

Carers can experience poor physical and psychosocial wellbeing, yet they remain largely unsupported by health and social services. It is essential that carers are supported both to  maintain their own health and wellbeing and to care for their family member or friend. However, before they can be supported, carers need to be identified.

Suffolk: Dementia patients need better access to services

Suffolk: Dementia patients need better access to services and doctors need better resources to give advice – report

Official launch of the Forget-Me-Not Dementia Campaign at West Suffolk Hospital. Image of the corridor before work begins. Official launch of the Forget-Me-Not Dementia Campaign at West Suffolk Hospital. Image of the corridor before work begins.

Friday, April 4, 2014
12:04 PM

People living with dementia in Suffolk need better access to support services, a report has claimed, after it emerged more than 5,000 sufferers live with the condition undiagnosed.

Doctors need better resources to provide good advice to newly-diagnosed dementia patients and double their current detection rate of the disease to meet new tougher government targets, the University of East Anglia (UEA) said.

Harrow Borough Council needs to listen to carers says independent councillor

It is only by listening to carers that those in authority can have any hope of getting the kind of support they need right.

A councillor has accused the council administration of snubbing a project aimed at helping carers which it helped to set up.

Councillor James Bond says the council is not listening to the issues faced by unpaid cares in Harrow.

The council launched the Carer Champion project and Cllr Victoria Silver was due to present a report into the experiences of some of the 26,000 carers on Harrow.