Category Archives: Aimed at Carers

Blog posts aimed at non paid carers caring for someone unwell.

The importance of carer forums

Welcome to another carer blog post from Matthew McKenzie

Ever thought why carer centres run carer forums? If you are a carer then you know that you are putting others first. The more unwell that person is, the more care and support you give. There will be times of course that you become isolated, tired and wondering if you are ignored.

Well the things I have mentioned are some of the reasons why carer centres run carer forums. Those very centres usually also run carer peer groups. It gives carers a chance to be listened to and also be heard. Carer peer groups and support groups do not really give carers a chance to be empowered, but they do provide support.

If you are lucky enough to belong to a carer centre that runs a carer forum, then you have a chance to become empowered. You might be wondering what Matthew is on about. Well give me a moment and I will get to the reasons why it is so important to attend and support your local carer forum.

Embed from Getty Images

Ever heard the saying “Nothing about us without us?”. The very quote came from disability rights activist James Charlton. If you are caring for someone, then services provided for them will be decided if you are involved or not. This goes double if you are using carer support services.

It is all fine that carers scramble to use support services to reduce isolation, be given guidence and join in carer activities. There does come a time when carers get a little bit tired of being told what suits them. So carer forums give carers a chance to request what services would be useful. It is so important that unpaid carers be empowered to use their voice, not only to update and tell their carer’s story, but also to give input regarding the services they use.

If you are providing unpaid care then these services could be carer assessments, carer hubs, access to skill development, learning about upcoming events and a whole lot more.

Embed from Getty Images

A healthy service is one that includes the user’s voice and this is the same when it comes to unpaid carers who use carer centre services. If you are providing unpaid care, you do not have to be an expert to attend and support your local carer forum. It can be fine to just attend and listen to updates. It takes a long time to become an empowered carer and many carer services can be complex, especially if your carer centre is involved at your local authority carer strategy.

Without a carer forum running from a carer’s centre then the risk is carer services will take guess work in what carers want. So it is so crucial that carer members new or veteran attend their carer forums.

Remember Nothing about us without us!!

Carers and learning about online resources

Welcome to my online site that focuses on unpaid carers. The site usually focuses on those caring for someone with a mental illness. This particular blog is on access to online learning resources.

The world is changing, since the 2019 pandemic, many more online learning resources e.g. access to help and advice, benefit info, event info and even carer groups have all most online. What if the carer struggles with the computer? what if the carer does not know how to join online groups?

It was a struggle to access online resources before the pandemic, but it still is a challenge. Some good news, Lewisham Carers Hub have received funding to allow carers to learn about computers and accessing online information. Please see the poster below

Top 10 things unpaid carers struggle with

Welcome back to another carer blog post by Matthew McKenzie carer activist and author in London.

I thought to try promote carer causes and focus on things that I reckon carers struggle with. As usual when I am talking about carers, I am talking about caring for someone in the family or as a friend.

Embed from Getty Images

Whether a person is caring out in the community or visiting the person they care for in hospital, there are challenges people need to take note of.

Here is a list down below

  1. Isolation – Caregivers can often feel cut off from the outside world, especially if caring, hard to understand
  2. Emotionl strain – Taking care of a loved one and being responsible for their health can be very stressful. depression, guilt, sleep loss.
  3. Financial situation – This struggle can cause all sorts of stress, the financial burden felt by caregivers should not be overlooked.
  4. How Caring can impact on opportunities – if your caring, then you are not earning or developing other skill bases. Still caring can develop it’s own skill base.
  5. identification as a carer – people do not always see themselves as a carer, but can lose out on support
  6. Getting access to support – respite, advocacy, emotional support, planning for the future
  7. Strains on Relationships – caring can be a joyful experience, but also stressful, lack of time for friends or family
  8. Being involved in care – confidentiality, jargon in NHS, relationship breakdowns, sometimes being missed in identification. These things can cause the carer to be uninvolved.
  9. Advocating for the cared for – need to deal with GPs, social workers, pharmacists, care agencies, receptionists and so on.
  10. Not being able to Focus on themselves – most of the previous things mentioned focus on the struggles carers face when caring, but too much focus can cause the carer to loose sight of their own well being. It is important to take time out, sleep, talk to a friend. Not easy if caring in crisis.

If you want a more detailed explanation I have also made a video below.

Wellbeing skills for Carers, Families & Friends – Kingston

For carers over in the London borough of Kingston. There are sessions aimed at unpaid carers which are informal and friendly. The sessions give practical ideas and tips, based on the latest scientific research to increase resilience, improve wellbeing and manage stress and anxiety levels better.

Please see poster below for more information or contact communitylearningkae@kingston.gov.uk

There is also a link below and the scan code

https://bit.ly/KAE-CLcrc2223

New online Carers rights course by Matthew McKenzie

Hello Fellow carers. I have now practically finished developing my online course for those caring for someone.

This course can be accessed via the courses section off my website.

The third course is on Carer’s Rights, which is such an important topic to millions of unpaid carers out there.

The online course covers the following with over 4 HOURS of content!!!

  • Your rights as a carer
  • Human rights
  • What things carers usually complain about
  • How to complain as a carer
  • Whose is responsible for carer’s rights
  • Support from employers when caring
  • Carer wellbeing under carer’s rights
  • List of different acts and laws
  • Complaint escalation ladder
  • Carer’s Assessment
  • Tackling confidentiality.

If you are a caring for somebody and do not know what your rights are, then this is the course for you. Only £2!! Or just email me

Watch out for more online courses, which I will be developing very soon.

New carer identity course by Matthew McKenzie

Welcome carers. I am soon about to launch my first online learning course aimed at carers. I thought to try challenge myself to work towards the field of lecturing online and it had to be a course aimed at carers.

The course “Carer Identity” covers the following

  • What is a carer?
  • Why be identified
  • Stigma and labels
  • Holding to account
  • Whose job is it to identify carers
  • Types of carer identification systems
  • What happens after Identification and more

The course can be accessed by clicking on the course section off my website.

Carer Courses

Carers Week 2022 – Being Valued and supported.

Welcome one and all, especially fellow carers.

So it is now the start of Carer’s week 2022. A week I have been waiting for all year and I hope you have as well. What is so special about Carer’s Week? It is a chance to use your experience of providing unpaid care to stand up and be counted for your efforts.

Carer’s Week is a collaboration of many charitable organistions seeking to make life easier for millions of carers around the country. The UK has been through difficult challenges over the years with the COVID-19 situation and now recently the cost of living. We also have the revamp of the mental health act and the new health and social care bill, which seeks to make the systems fairer to carers and those they care for.

However many carers around the country are wary of new laws and bills and to be honest unpaid carers have not come well off from past laws. It is so important the government, local authority and health providers seek engagement from unpaid carers regarding new bills and policies.

Going back to carers week, there are many themes and campaigns taking place. The latest one is on the “A Recovery and espite Plan for Unpaid Carers” There is an open letter to the prime minister signed by seven CEOs of major national charities.

  • Helen Walker, Chief Executive, Carers UK
  • Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director, Age UK
  • Kirsty McHugh, Chief Executive, Carers Trust
  • Sally Light, Chief Executive, MND Association
  • Danny Sriskandarajah, Chief Executive, Oxfam GB
  • Mark Winstanley, Chief Executive, Rethink Mental Illness
  • Jacqui Cannon, Chief Executive, The Lewy Body Society

Click to access open-letter-to-government-carers-week-2022-campaign.pdf

The theme for carers week 2022

Each year, carers week has a theme to highlight the importance of unpaid carers and the challenges they go through. This year is no different and the theme for this year is “Making caring visible, valued and supported”. So why such a theme this year?

Personally it is well known that carers can end up being hidden because they are caring behind closed doors, but there are other reasons for carers to be hidden. Not many people think they are caring and just get on with it, some feel that caring carries stigma and to make matters difficult, health and social care systems often fail to identify carers. It is known that even if a carer is identified then there is always a risk that the carer can slip through the net. The reason for this is caring heavily relies on the relationship to the “cared for”, especially caring for mental illness. If that relationship fails then caring can be at risk and the carer could be at risk.

What about being valued? Is caring valued in society? Is caring valued in the community? To be really blunt about it, I am afraid caring suffers from being valued. Society does not deem the sacrifices others have to pay to care a worthwhile endeavour. It could be that people are compelled to care and that in itself could be the reward, but that reward is countered by the harsh challenges carers have to face, especially financial. Unpaid carers put so much on the line that they themselves risk their own health and wellbeing. It is so important we not only value carers but the importance of caring itself.

What about being supported as a carer? Many carers complain health and social care systems fail to support them. The risk is if the support for the carer is lacking, then this can cause a trickle down effect to the patient or “cared for”. The risk is the patient suffers at the end of the day because the carer is not getting that vital support.

I call for ALL carers to use this week as an opportunity to stand up and be counted, be diplomatic in your efforts, but make yourself known and be proud you have been there all this time to give a care. We are not asking much, just only to be identified, valued and supported.

Just to note, I will be doing a Share & Learn session at Carers UK. I wish to share my knowledge of the experience of care regarding ethnicity, mental health and carer wellbeing using my poetry. If you are a carer, see the link below to book

https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/get-support/share-and-learn-online-sessions

Carer Poem : The Journey by Matthew McKenzie

Welcome everyone especially unpaid carers. I am preparing a lot of things for Carers Week 2022. It looks to be an exciting set of activities for carers and those that work with them across the UK.

I am also been busy working on my new book for this year. It is a poetry book on the experiences of providing care to those suffering mental illness. This is from the perspective of an unpaid carer.

Here is one of my latest videos on the Poem “The Journey” and also a reflection of that poem.

The poem is from a book I am working on is called “The Poetry book of mental health caring” as you can see from the cover below

The Poetry book of Mental Health Caring

I am hoping to release the book on Amazon this year, perhaps around the Autumn, but it is not just a book containing poems. The book will ask readers to reflect regarding the nature of the poem. One of the NHS trust’s I talked to felt it could be useful for training, even though a lot of focus is on unpaid carers to reflect on the nature of the poem and how it could help them.

Anyway, I am hoping to blog more of my poems soon.

Mental Health poem by Matthew McKenzie

Welcome to my latest blog post. It has been a while since I have uploaded a poem. I have written close to 65 poems on the carer experience since the start of this year. Slowly a fair number of poems will be uploaded to my YouTube Playlist. The poems will play by themselves.

Plus I have added some podcasts of my poems

https://caringmindblog.com/carer-poetry-series/

My latest poem is called “Confusion”

This poem is quite dark, but tells an often all too familiar story where the carer is trying to care for someone who has relapsed into mental illness. There are no beds or resources for the person who is very sick and thus the carer is confused on what to do. She will stick it out and try and cope as she watches her ‘loved one’ descend into madness.

Confusion by Matthew McKenzie

I sit and wait wondering what is next
Too scared to look at whats before me
The phone sits on the table, i am not sure who to call
I just dont know…I have tried before

The sounds…so distressing, so much is on me
but time is going so slow as my mind torments me
I look at him as his eyes look straight past
My heart sinks as my mind is harassed

Minute by minute..hour by hour
Not a word heard or a form of contact
I sit and wait wondering whats next
confusion takes me and I cannot find the solution.

Look after yourself – Carer poem by Matthew McKenzie

No one ever told you that you will be doing this
Yet here you are trying to cope
Trying to care

No one ever told you how much you both will suffer
Yet you are are trying your best
Being there

No one ever told you that things could go wrong
And yet each day you struggle
hoping the illness to disappear

No one ever told you about the sacrfices
Yet you will keep sacrificing
Year after year

No one ever told you about the future
Yet you are putting it on the line
facing it with fear

No one ever told you that you was a carer
Still caring?
Look after yourself.