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Carers & Carers Assessments

What is a carer?

A carer is "a person of any age, adult or child, who provides unpaid support to a partner, child, relative or friend who couldn't manage to live independently or whose health or wellbeing would deteriorate without this help. This could be due to frailty, disability or serious health condition, mental ill health or substance misuse." - The Royal College of General Practitioners, 2011.

A lot of people who provide unpaid support do not see themselves as carers as they may feel that is a normal part of life. This support might include:

  • personal care such as assistance with bathing and dressing
  • help with medication
  • cooking, grocery shopping and domestic tasks
  • accompanying to appointments
  • transport
  • help managing finances
  • emotional support.

What is a carer's assessment?

A carer's assessment is a conversation between yourself and an assessment officer about the caring role or roles you have and how it affects your daily life. This is an opportunity for you to talk about any concerns you may have and what support you may need.

For further information on carers assesments please see the Royal Greenwich website here

Contact

We are Contact, the charity for families with disabled children. We support families with the best possible guidance and information. We bring families together to support each other. And we help families to campaign, volunteer and fundraise to improve life for themselves and others.

https://contact.org.uk/ 

The Carers Scholarships Fund

Whilst many carers want to care for love ones, and do an excellent job, this can sometimes come at a cost to themselves. Their everyday lives can be repeatedly so disrupted that they often end up exhausted.

Despite wishing to continue with education and lifelong learning, and reap the rewards that these bring, carers are often unable to commit to a regular timetable and don’t have the money to study for higher education. The Carers Scholarships Fund is a one year pilot that will support the equivalent of 50 undergraduate/postgraduate full fee-waiver scholarships.

https://giving.open.ac.uk/carers

Parents/Carers Mental Health Reference Group

We would like to host a group of parents who are keen to be involved in discussions around children's mental health.

This reference group will feed into the commissioning of services for children and young people and the mental health services that the Council provide.

If you are interested in joining this group or want to find out more please email Jummy Hemsley at 
olajumoke.hemsley@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or call 0208 921 4654.