Category Archives: Aimed at Carers

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

Carer involvement

Thanks for popping along to read another of my carer blog posts. Aren’t we lucky today, just this morning I had released a blog post about sociology and now I am blogging again regarding carer involvement.

As of this morning I am a carer governor of my local trust, that trust being NHS South London and Maudsley, I am also a carer representative at that trust and fairly active in the communities as I set on many forums and groups. Why do I do all this you may wonder? Well read on and I hope to get the message across.

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Carer Empowerment

Silhouette of man showing his hand on sunset sky background, Successful business concept.

Welcome back to another blog from fellow mental health carer from South London.  I thought to do another video regarding carer empowerment.

The video can be quite controversial because there will be others who feel that the NHS is trying as hard as it can to accommodate carers and their loved ones, but unfortunately this is not always the case, so it is up to mental health carers like ourselves to be empowered to speak up.

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My view of Carer support groups

Welcome to another blog post from mental health carer Matthew McKenzie. This time I thought I would blog about something most carers find useful, but is actually quite hard to provide. Before I continue, I would just like to mention that a carer is someone who cares for a person suffering ill health, but an important point is that carers are unpaid. Carers tend to fall on difficult times due to the stress placed on health services, cuts on other services, plus misunderstandings by those who have not encountered carers.

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Being there for the family

cover-blogIt has been a while since my last blog post. Usually I review psychiatry or psychology lectures, but I thought to go back into writing more about carers. This time I think I shall blog about why people want to be there for others, especially those that are close to them.

The role of a carer unfortunately is not an easy task or one that people are often ready for. Who is to say when the next person is to be struck down by a physical or mental illness. If we are to begin that journey where we are to care for our loved one, there are many paths that we can go down and each path can make things easier or incredibly difficult in the long run.

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Carers Rights Day 2015

Hello again and welcome to another blog post from Mental Health Carer Matthew Mckenzie. As of this blog post, today is Carers Rights day 2015. The theme for carers rights day 2015 is “Looking after someone”.

However what is Carers Rights day all about?

Basically a carer is someone who is looking after someone and I mean not a professional paid carer, but those who are unpaid and are not always receiving the support that can be so desperately needed.

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Carers Week 2015 – Building carer friendly communities

Matthew Mckenzie (2)This blog post centres on carers week 2015, which runs from 8-14 of June. Carers week occurs each year raising awareness of carers or care givers. Carers week in the UK also has many supporters and collaborators ranging from CarersUK, Carerstrust, Macmillian Cancer support, AgeUK, Sainsbury and so on.

If you ever happen to visit the Carers Week website, feel free to make a pledge on
their pledge wall.

The cost of caring

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There are many carers and organisations that have contributed to carers week
2015, I as a mental health carer I feel I should at least add some of my own views.
Interestingly enough I have noticed that the theme of Carers Week 2015 is on building carer friendly communities and of course this is a good thing. There are in the UK around 6.5 million carers. It is a fact that Carers provide help, support and care not only to family members, but also to close friends or neighbours. Without that much needed support from carers in the UK, then the UK’s National Health Service would collapse.

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Caring without overdoing it, what’s the risk?

matthew mckenzieWelcome back to another blog post on mental health carers and to be honest, sometimes I just post on general mental health to raise awareness. I do not want to give those relying on carers a bad name, but I felt this time I should post on how easy it is for carers to risk burning themselves out while providing care.

However it does depend on the service user situation, not all mental health problems demand a high level of care, but alas for some families and carers, they will have to try and provide care for the long term. If this is the case, what are the issues? What are the risks for carer fatigue, burnout and stress?

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Carers – It is ok to moan and complain……sometimes

Matthew MckenzieSometimes it is known that carers tend to complaining and making a fuss. We fuss about who we care for and then an argument starts when things are not done right or there is a disagreement. We make a fuss at the health service when we feel that our loved ones are not getting the best service. Carers can sometimes make demands for information when they feel they are kept in the dark. As a carer, I have been down this very road several times. Can you relate? If you are a carer then you may understand.

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Caring – What it means to me

I was so chuffed to be asked by Matthew to do a guest blog. Matthew is such a star raising awareness about carers’ issues that I feel honoured that he has asked for my views!

I regularly do a slot at Corporate Induction for South London and Maudlsey NHS – “What it feels like to be a carer?” . It is great to have a “captive audience” to get the message across about the valuable work that carers do and how involving them has a real potential to make the medical professionals’ job easier – not more complicated as is often believed to be the case.

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