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Information for Carers
Are You a Carer?
If you are please let us know - we may be able to help you
We will make a note on your patient record and you will be offered the following:
- An annual Flu Vaccination
- A Carers Health Check
- A regular email invite to Carers Together monthly Carers Café
The NHS website has lots of information to guide you: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/
A guide to care and support available in Wiltshire is now available here.
The Wiltshire Adult Care and Support guide, published by Care Choices gives readers information on how to access and pay for care services throughout Wiltshire.
Carers Together Wiltshire
Carers Together Wiltshire is a partnership between Age UK Wiltshire, Community First, Beyond Dementia, Wiltshire Service Users Network, Citizens Advice Wiltshire and Wessex Community Action, under the umbrella, ‘Carers Together Wiltshire’.
Telephone: 01380 710300
- A guide to care and support: Information for carers and people who have care & support needs.
- Caring for someone: Advice on providing care, medicines etc.
- Care after hospital: Providing care for people who have been recently discharged from hospital.
- Taking a break: Caring for someone can be a full-time job - find out about accessing breaks and respite care.
- Support and benefits for carers: Caring for someone can be a full-time job - find out about accessing breaks and respite care.
- Work and Disability: Guidance, support and help with employment issues.
- Being a young carer: Advice for carers 18 or under and their entitlement to support
Finance and Law
Help claiming benefits, looking after your bank balance and understanding the legal issues of caring.
- Benefits for carers: Directing carers to the benefits that can help them in their caring role
- Benefits for the under-65s: Advice and information on helping the person you look after get the benefits that they are entitled to.
- Benefits for the over-65s: Advice and information on financial support for older people with a disability or illness.
- Carer's Assement: How your benefits maybe affected after the death of the person you look after and what happens to their benefits
- Other benefits: Advice for carers and the people they are looking after on claiming a whole host of other benefits unrelated to their disability or caring
Carers Direct
Telephone: 0808 802 0202
Email: CarersDirect@nhschoices.nhs.uk
Office Hours: Lines are open 8am to 9pm Monday to Friday, 11am to 4pm at weekends. Calls are free from UK landlines.
Hints and Tips for Carers
- TV License - If you have an elderly person that you care for and they had a free TV License when they lived alone, when they move in with you it is transferable to you.
- Your council tax may be reduced if you are a carer and the 'cared for' person lives with you. Contact your local council.
- Create a master list of everyone who is in the life of the person you care for and place it on a wall in their house in a prominent place. Include contact telephone numbers and a note of who each person is. The list could contain details of all carers, medical and social care contacts but also neighbours, vet, care line, milkman, local shop, church, chemist, electrician, gardener, plumber, as well as all family members. It could also prove to be invaluable in an emergency situation.
- Find a monthly calendar with big spaces to write things in and ensure that it is kept up to date. Include birthdays that need shopping for etc. Knowing what is going on reduces anxiety both for the 'carer' and 'cared for'.
- Check out ways to increase melatonin levels. One 'cared for' patient got benefit from a Lumie Sunrise alarm clock.
- Look into buying an automated cat or dog - these can be of great comfort to 'cared for' patients, particularly those living with dementia. If you would like further information regarding this product please contact Paula Wilson (Carers Lead at Whiteparish Surgery).
- Find someone to talk to.