Welcome back to an update of another carers event. This time my blog is on the Carers UK members’ conference for 2024. The carers event took place on the 19th of March 2024 and was held at Woburn House over at Tavistock Square.
The event was sponsored by Regina Blitz, which will continue to support Carers UK’s Care for a Cuppa online sessions
This event is always something that I am looking forward to. Just for those who do not know. Carers UK is a national charity that supports and fights for carer’s rights.
Caring for someone unpaid although is a rewarding experience can also come with many challenges. If you are caring full time, then it is hard to pay your way on other costs, which could be bills, food, travel or even equipment to help provide care. The more difficult the condition of someone you are caring for, the more strain the carer will take on and this leads on to the importance of organisations that lobby for change and raise carer awareness.
At this particular conference we carers who have joined as a member to Carers UK and want to hear what the charity is doing for carers. Such events are recommended to attend because you can network, learn of updates and get a chance to ask questions or state your views.
The Carers UK members conference was also hosted online since there are carers who are too far or were caring and could not travel.
As I arrived at the venue, I could hear classical music and noticed that Orchestra Vitae was playing at the main hall. I felt relaxed and welcomed by the Carers UK staff who greeted everyone and also asked about how my travel to the venue turned out. I had a lovely breakfast at the start of the event and talked to a few people at the Carers UK stands. I spoke to representatives of Carers Scotland, Carers Wales and Carers Ireland.
It was not long before I spoke to carers from my own area where I voluntarly run my carer groups. It was great to spend time with those who understand the caring role. I also met many of the Carers UK staff who were also looking forward to the day. Everyone was relaxed and among friends and comrades.
We heard from many speakers including
• Nick Baird, Chair, Carers UK • Helen Walker, Chief Executive, Carers UK • Emily Kenway • Emily Holzhausen OBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Carers UK • Claire Morgan, Director of Carers Wales, Carers UK • Richard Meade, Director of Carers Scotland and Carers NI, Carers UK
There were many highlights of the conference, especially the importance of carers recognising they do have the power to change things, especially with the election coming up. It is so important carers hold MPs to account on what they are doing to help unpaid carers have a better future.
Another highlight was the carers panel where we heard from carers experiences and the impact of the caring role. The panel was led by Emily Kenway who is an author of many books who also researches, writes and speaks about thought-provoking social issues.
After a lovely lunch there were breakout sessions which carers could choose to attend. The following sessions are listed below.
Membership and Support Carers UK offers
Implications of Carers Leave Act 2023 for Working Carers
Positive Poetry
Cartoon Drawing
Looking after yourself
I attended the membership and support for Carers session as being a member, I am often interested in updates provided. We got to hear of the latest initiatives, available online groups and issues affecting carers. We also got to hear from carer member Hitesh Daudia who also is a carer activist and has an excellent website aimed at providing information resources for carers.
I also had a spot at the conference due to being a long standing member of Carers UK since 2013. My role at Carers UK as a volunteer has grown as my profile raising carer awareness has grown. With Michael Shann who is Head of Carers support at Carers UK, I spoke to the audience of the importance of growing the carers network. It is vital that we all work towards growing the carers movement. This could be through sharing our stories, speaking to leaders who have the power to shape our lives, raising awareness or engaging with other carers.
The Conference finished with several songs from Matt Hill who is a accomplished singer songwriter. Matt sung songs that promoted the difficulties carers face. I felt the songs brought carers together as they all recognised the common struggles and felt this event was a place of belonging.
Through our lived experience, it is so important carers are included in the political agenda. We all must work together for a better future for unpaid carers and this can be done through Carers UK.
If you want to be a member of Carers UK one of the biggest national charities fighting for the carer cause, please check out the link below. You can also volunteer at Carers UK in a role that suits your caring situation.
A brief update of a recent Cygnet Carers, families and friends network event. As a Cygnet carers network ambassador. I often try to engage with families and carers whose loved ones use the services of Cygnet. For those who do not already know, Cygnet Health Care is an independent provider of health and social care services for young people and adults with mental health needs, acquired brain injuries, eating disorders, autism and learning disabilities within the UK.
Cygnet aims to connect to families and carers through there carer network events, triangle of care guidelines and carer offers through strategies and policies.
The carer network event took place at Cygnet Wast Hills over in Birmingham. Cygnet Wast Hills provides support for 21 individuals with autism, learning disabilities and complex needs. The team can also support individuals who may be detained under the Mental Health Act, as well as those who have complex behaviours, or who have significant difficulties with social engagement.
As you can see Cygnet provides the best service it can for patients, but there needs to be a focus on families and friends who are providing unpaid care. So I was glad to play my part in networking with cygnet friends and families.
The journey to the cygnet site although long was pleasant as I enjoyed watching the scenary while travelling. I met up with fellow cygnet carer ambassodor Julian de Takets as we discussed what to present for the event. With great support from Laura who is Cygnet’s carer lead and service improvement manager, I felt we would make an excellent impression for the carers who attended.
The team at Cygnet Wast Hill provided the best decorated experience I have seen for a very long time. They showed their dedication to the carer network event, I am very proud of them and I am sure many carers who attended were also impressed.
I was also happy to see carer information and updates on the service boards around the hospital site.
To open the event was a great experience as I read some of my poems in order for carers to relate to the caring experience. I asked questions at the carers and staff to help raise the awareness of carers.
We then had a presentation from Philip Winterbottom who is Head of Safeguarding at Cygnet Health Care Phil has worked as a nurse and manager for 20 years in various mental health and social care settings. In the last few years, Phil has held dedicated safeguarding roles on a national level.
Next was the networking with carers as we stopped the presentations for lunch. It was great to hear carers feedback and share experiences.
Next up was Kate Mercer who runs a training organisation, ‘Black Belt Advocacy’ that offers support and formal qualifications to independent advocates including a National Advocacy Conference each year. She also acts as a family advocate at Cygnet, supporting families who have a loved one in mental health settings. It is always a welcome sight to see Kate present as many in the audience finds her entertaining.
We then heard from the Occupational therapists Heather Davis & Tracy Lambert. Carers wanted to know what occupational therapists do and how they can support families and carers.
Last but not least to present was Julian De Takats who now has a focus on the triangle of care and setting up carer network events. Julian presented his carer experience and the impact it has had on him over the years. Julian feels the experience provides him the tools to help cygnet reach other carers.
Welcome to another blog post from carer activist and author Matthew McKenzie. I am updating carers on an important conference held once a year. This is the National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC), which is a three day conference for elected members and senior leaders in local authorities with responsibility for, or an interest in, the delivering effective services and opportunities for children, young people and adults.
The conference is promoted by The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and The Local Government Association (LGA).
The 2023 conference was held over at Bournemouth International Centre on the 29th of November.
Hot off the heels of Carers UK report on ethnic minority carers. Carers UK provided a briefing follows Carers UK’s report on the experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic carers during and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.
As co-chair of the Carers UK ethnic advisory group, we brought together charities and carers from diverse groups who provided feedback and updates on how the community can support carers from diverse groups. You can see the briefing below.
Taken from Carers UK site “Many carers from Black, Asian and minority ethnic minority backgrounds do not often recognise themselves as carers, with some languages lacking a distinct word for ‘carer.’ They may instead primarily see themselves as a family member, due to cultural expectations and not access resources available to them as a result.”
It is important to spread carer awareness and good practice at every occasion. So with the up and coming National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC), I was delighted to be given the chance to give my thoughts on the positive difference the Carers UK ethnic carer advisory group had made. I wanted to talk about the following.
The difference Carers UK made for ethnic black and asian carers
The challenges minority ethnic carers faced
Good practice examples from organisations working hard to make a difference
What I would like to see for the future
On the day I visited many stalls focusing on social care and support for those caring for them.
It was not long before I found myself at the main enterance hall listening to speakers on how they will drive social care for the country. It was exciting to hear Beverley Tarka who is the ADASS President (Haringey director for adults, health and communities).
Beverley talked about her mission to include carers as a key focus for inclusion in social care. ADASS who is a membership charity, a leading, independent voice of adult social care are launching their Carers Challenge 2023.
The carers challenge is about inspiring ways to provide better support for unpaid carers.
It’s a challenge to social care teams and people working with them to tell the story about how they’re making a difference to unpaid carers in their community.
The aim of the challenge is to bring those stories together into one online storehouse of great ideas that anyone working in care can use to inspire what they do next to improve support for carers.
It was not long until we were up to do our talk about Carers and diversity. I was joined by the following.
Claudia Brown who hosted the session and facilitated the Q&A section. Claudia is the Co-chair, ADASS Carers Policy Group and Director of Adult Social Services, Brent Council.
Abinaya Kamalanathan who spoke about how Wandsworth carers centre worked with LGBTQ+ carers. She is the Carers Support and Development Officer and LGBTQ+ Project Co-ordinator at Wandsworth Carers Centre
Last but not least we had Melanie Crew who is the Senior Research and Policy Officer from Carers UK.
Melanie spoke about the work Carers UK had done to reach out and support diverse groups of carers.
Overall I enjoyed taking part in the conference. It was brillaint to speak about the work Carers UK and others have done and I learned so much from the audience who asked thoughtful questions.
Welcome to another blog post from carer activist Matthew McKenzie. This blog post updates carers and other organisations who wish to know more about triangle of care. As a Cygnet network ambassodor, I have becoming involved in helping to shape carer and family engagement at Cygnet.
It has been over a year since Cygnet launched their Carers Strategy over at Cygnet Churchill. It is not December 2023 and we have come a very long way. Through carer network engagement events around the country and updates of policies to support and inform families and carers.
During 2023, several of Cygnet hospital sites have implemented the Triangle of Care scheme on their wards. For those who do not know about Triangle of Care, it is an Accreditation hosted by national charity Carers Trust.
The Triangle of Care promotes six principles to improve engagement towards families and carers of those using mental health services:
Carers and the essential role they play are identified at first contact or as soon as possible thereafter.
Staff are ‘carer aware’ and trained in carer engagement strategies.
Policy and practice protocols regarding confidentiality and sharing information, are in place.
Defined post(s) responsible for carers are in place.
A carer introduction to the service and staff is available, with a relevant range of information across the care pathway.
A range of carer support services are available.
Through a peer review, Cygnet were delighted to be awarded the Triangle of Care badge for the sites the successfully completed the triangle of care stage 1.
So for the 1st of December 2023, Cygnet hosted a christmas celebration party for all those involved. Carer ambassadors, cygnet staff and some others were in attendance.
We also welcomed others who are also looking forward to being part of the Cygnet Carers Network and also to promote mental wellbeing.
Four Cygnet sites have all been awarded the triangle of care badge to show they have made improvements and passed stage 1 Triangle of care. The sites were Cygnet Hospital Sheffield, Cygnet Appletree, Cygnet Fountains and Cygnet Hospital Hexham.
At the Christmas event we had the following congratulatory speeches from David Wilmott, Director of Nursing at Cygnet Health Care. We also had inspirational speeches from Vicky McNally, Director of Partnership & Engagement and Laura Sheridan who is the Group Service Improvement Manager.
Several awards were handed out and a special thanks to carer Karan Ibrahim who helped shared stories and supported carer engagement.
Throughout the event, attendees shared ideas and suggestions on the way forward for Cygnet via their Carers Wish list. This gives a chance for others to help shape the vision for carer engagement at Cygnet.
Congratulations to all 4 Cygnet sites, which can now set an example to other Cygnet sites to make a differance through the implementation of Triangle of care. Here is to 2024.
Welcome to another carers blog from carer activist Matthew McKenzie. I blog and promote awareness campaigns, events and updates for unpaid carers. Just so you know, an unpaid carer is someone caring for a person who suffers from a serious mental or physical health need. An unpaid carer is not a care worker, so carers need their own specific support needs.
This leads on to an event I attended as one of the Cygnet carer network ambassodor. The event was another of the carers, families and friends network event. Cygnet try very hard to reach out to unpaid carers whose loved ones are using their services. It is a great way to network with staff and other carers. Carers go through many struggles and one of them is caring in isolation. So what I often tell carers is that they should network with other carers. This can help build up a support structure where carers can become peer supporters. Of course there are boundaries as carers do not often have the time to check in with other carers, but we still have to value the importance of a carer support network.
Cygnet Sheffield
Cygnet Hospital Sheffield offers a low secure service for women and CAMHS services for male and female adolescents over three distinct wards. When I mention CAMHS I am talking about Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.
We cannot ignore that children and young people can also develop serious mental health problems and the outcome can be devastating for carers, friends and families.
Carers need all the information and support they can get. So it helps to have these events. The event took place on Carers Rights day, which is held on the 23rd of November each year. Please check out my earlier blog post on Carers Rights day to find out more.
Also presenting at the Sheffield Carers Network event were
Ali Curtis – CAMHS Service Lead for Cygnet Sheffield and CAMHS Lead Nurse for Cygnet
Dr Seb Thompson – Head of Psychology at Cygnet Sheffield and CAMHS Lead Psychologist for Cygnet
Lesley Mellor – Parent & Carer
Julian de Takats – Parent & Carer
Kate Mercer – Family Advocate, Black Belt Advocacy
Ali Curtis started off the event. Ali who is a qualified learning disability nurse started her career nursing within medium and low secure forensic services before progressing to management within locked rehabilitation and children’s community services.
She her presentation and introduction to the event on what the service provides for those who use Sheffield hospital services. Ali presentated on aspects of the Triangle of Care, which is a scheme to improve mental health services for unpaid carers.
Sheffield hospital has done an amazing amount of work to develop and improve carer engagement and support. This was done in co-production with unpaid carers. This includes
Developing a Carers Welcome Pack
Carer awareness training
Carers contributions and videos and podcasts
Communication Care Plans, including information sharing agreement
Family Forums and so much more.
The above was developed to connect to the triangle of care 6 standards.
Dr Seb also contributed to the presentation on how the triangle of care made improvements to severals. If we include the families and carers in our mental health services then the quality of the services improve.
We then had Lesley Mellor talk about her caring role and feeding back what she heard from Dr Seb and Ali Curtis.
Lesley is the chair of Dorset Parent Carer Council. She is also the founder and administrator of West Dorset Coping with Chaos Plat Scheme for children with disabilities / additional needs. Lesley is a parent of 2 sons with disabilities. Lesley gave a passionate and indepth talk about the importance of parent carers.
Next up to speak was myself where I wanted to get views from those in attendance regarding carer awareness. I read out one of the poems out of my carer poetry book focusing on the desperate need for carer identity. I also talked about the importance of Carers Rights day and how we can use the day to highlight carers rights.
Up next to present during Lunch time was Kate Mercer. She runs a training organization called Black Belt Advocacy that offers support and formal qualifications to independent advocates including a National Advocacy Conference each year.
Kate spoke about the importance of advocacy for carers and the impact advocacy has in their lives. With support of the Care Act and mental health laws, there has been an increase in carer rights, but this is no good if services are unaware of these rights and they must be practiced and promoted to carers.
Last to speak was the 3rd member of the Cygnet Carers Network Julian de Takats. Julian is also a parent carer and used his lived experience to present the importance of including carers.
Overall the event increased carer awareness for those in attendance. I will continue to urge carers attend such events so they get a chance to network, ask questions and learn about how Cygnet services are developing to include carers.
Welcome to another blog post by carer activist, poet and author Matthew McKenzie. Leading up to carers rights day, I have another exciting update. On 20th of November 2023, it was South London & Maudsley’s Family & Carers Listening event.
For those who have never attending such an event, I wrote a blog about South London & Maudsley’s previous carers conference.
South London & Maudsley provide the widest range of mental health services in the UK, but it is so important that behind mental health services are families and carers trying to cope and trying to make a difference. So it is important to listen to families and carers.
For those who dont already know, a carer is someone who who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without the carers support.
So what took place at the listening event?
Well after the introduction from Gabrielle Richards MBE who is the Head of Inclusion, Recovery and Professional Head of Occupational Therapy and AHPs. She was also joined by carers Faith Smith and Ann Morgan who helped co-produce the event.
This was a bold step by the mental health organisation to have carers design the event on what carers would want to celebrate.
The theme of the listening event for 2023 was “Looking after you & Listening to you”.
We then had a welcoming video from Sir Norman Lamb who is the chair of the NHS Trust. Norman Lamb mentioned that even though we have a carers event, there still is a long way to go to provide the best support for carers who do so much to support those using the mental health services in South London.
Sir Norman spoke about how SLaM worked so hard for the Triangle of Care scheme to archieve it’s first star for inpatient wards. The South London NHS trust is working towards their second star.
Carers Rights day section
We then moved onto the importance of Carers Rights day from Cath collins who is the Carers Social Worker for the borough of Lewisham. Cath spoke about the importance of carers rights and how families and carers play a key role in the recovery of people with mental health problems.
Cath mentioned the difficultly of stigma and shame around mental health where some carers do not wish to engage with services, but if they do not engage then they can miss out on carers rights. So with Carers Rights taking place on the 23rd of November, it is so important this gets highlighted.
Cath Collins also spoke about the particular strain carers from ethnic minorities face especially the impact of racism and trauma, which can filter down from barriers outside of the NHS. Cath Collins then spoke about planning for the future which was raised by Brenda who is a carer. Brenda was worried about what will happen to a loved one when they cannot care anymore. So learning from birmingham and solihull mental health trust, SLaM engaged with Brenda’s ideas and developed a Planning for the future and emergency planning document aimed at carers.
The last presentation from Cath was the importance of carers assessments
Laughter Workshop Session by Jaycee La Bouch (Zen Laughter)
Carers who planned the listening event wanted something to make them smile or laugh. So it was no surprise to see Jaycee La Bouche from Zen Laughter provide a Laughter Workshop.
Jaycee is a great carer ambassodor for Carers UK which is a national charity promoting carers rights and providing a platform for carers to be heard.
Taken from ZenLaughter website, They say “laughter is the best medicine”. This was quite true for the day as Jaycee took us through several activities of Laughter Yoga. I have never tried laughter Yoga, but after the session I can see the benefits. Carers go through such stressful and difficult circumstances. Carers can be easily worn out and worn down by struggling to provide care. So any form of wellbeing exercise is worth the investment.
Jo Lambert & Matthew McKenzie – Bridging the gap using poetry and artwork.
As a poet and author I often use the power of creativity to develop social change. Sometimes I am happy to just express myself with poetry. Carers can go through so much strain that at times words themselves cannot express the pain and torment. So poetry is a great medium to highlight the issue where other carers can just relate instantly.
There is power through poems and connecting. It does not have to be about pain. A lot of poems can have a happier outlook and be hopeful, but being realistic many carers find themselves in a role that is a struggle.
So Jo and myself are a part of a carer poetry circle to promotes the values of caring. Jo spoke about her lived experience of being a carer and using Art and poetry to bridge the gap. I spoke about the social focus where it is important to connect and network with each other. The caring role can be isolating and lonely. The focus for healthcare can be patient centred, but behind the patient often is the carer, silently coping and carrying on. I wanted to let carers know that they should not just cope, they should also connect with each other. Carers should share experiences, updates and focus on positive activism for a better change. Work with the health and social care services to bring about a better experience.
Jo and myself read the poem “Fairy lights of Hope”, which you can see from the video below.
Connecting, networking and food
Carers took my advice and networked with each other, with a plate of sandwiches and cakes. It makes it so much easier to network if you have food and drink.
The Ortus Learning centre provided excellent refreshments so carers felt at home and relaxed to catch up with each other. It was excellent to see old friends who are going through the journey of unpaid care. Carers also learned about what projects or campaigns they have been involved on.
After Lunch we moved on to another creative session from Annette Davis as she performed a series of songs to entertain the audience. I managed to record one of the songs before my phone ran out of power.
Advanced Choice Documents presentation
The next session was the importance of Advanced Choice documents. An advance choice document allows service users to have a say in how they wish to be treated during a future crisis or relapse, by making professionals aware of their advance wishes and preferences as requests and/or refusals of treatment
The presentation was presented by Kay Burton, Mental Health Law Project Manager, Pauline Edwards, Peer Recovery Trainer, Nick Hunter, Peer Recovery Trainer. The presentation was engaging as carers asked a series of questions about the challenges they face regarding the ACDs.
Rob Frowen carer impact discussion
The next part of the SLaM carers listening conference moved onto a talk by Rob Frowen who is an author. Rob also won the UK’s Carer of the Year award in 2017 for his caring and charitable efforts.
Rob Frowen talked about his caring journey and the impact it made across the UK. He also spoke about his book “The Long and Winding Road”. It is important carers tell their story otherwise no one will know or learn about the challenges carers face.
Rob still continues to share his insight and helps shapes policy at a high level through his local NHS trust “Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation”. It is encouraging to see the NHS trust have Rob on their board to raise and include the carer voice to a high level.
Poetry group workshop by Ann Morgan
This workshop focused on the power of poetry. Ann Morgan led a session for the audience to develop their own poetry by incorporating a single statement from each person and creating a set of poems.
I was amazed at the result as each poem developed from each table. The poems were creative and inspiring. South London & Maudsley will create a booklet featuring each of the 7 or so poems.
You can listen to one of the poems below
How carers can get more involved Session by Faith Smith
The final session was led by carer Faith Smith. Faith is involved at SLaM and also works at the Health Innovation Network. A video was presented on the importance of carer involvement. The video featured Faith Smith and Aurora Todisco (Lived Experience Partners) and Sophie Lowry, Implementation and Involvement manager HIN (Health Innovation Network).
The HIN connects NHS and academic organisations, local authorities, the third sector and industry, in order to increase the spread and adoption of innovation across large populations, at pace and scale.
It is so important that such organisations include the carer voice as carers need to be included on the journey of health and social care. The video led to brilliant discussions on the importance of carer involvement
National aim of NHS England, poetry and closing remarks.
Did I mentioned I am involved as a carer at NHS England? There are several aims from NHS England and one of them is focused on carers. NHS England have worked very hard to include carers despite the challenges the organisation faces.
I presented an overview NHS England’s framework for carers.
I asked carers that they must hold Integrated Care Systems to account as they must include carers from the framework presented. The challenge carers face will be difficult due to resources getting less. Still if carers want to be included then the need to be present, but specfic carer campaigners and activists cannot be everywhere so they must network and update each other.
Unfortunately I could not finish the presentation because the audience were very keen to find out how they could hold to account health system policies. In the end after closing the the SLaM carers listening conference. I felt the organisation was very inclusive to co-produce with carers and listen to the stories, concerns and challenges carers face.
Welcome back to another carer and mental health blog post for November. This blog focuses on Kings College hospital event for Tuesday 14th of November. The event was called “King’s Mental Health Fair”.
King’s College Hospital is a major teaching hospital and major trauma centre in Denmark Hill, Camberwell in the London Borough of Lambeth. Kings provide local hospital services for people living in the boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, and Bromley.
However Kings college hospital feels not only physical health is important, but also mental health. Kings hospital also wants to work with community groups to help promote good health and mental wellbeing. So for 2023 it was the 2nd ever Mental Health Fair.
The mental health fair took place in the Boardroom which is in the Hambleden Wing, which ran from 11 am till 2 pm and hosted by Kieran Quirke who is the Associate Director of Nursing for Mental Health at Kings. The fair was open to all patients, staff and carers, which staff from Kings hospital attending and also staff from NHS maudsley dropping by.
There were some excellent stalls from organisations taking part. I visited a stall from the SHARP gallery where they mentioned exhibitions and workshops.
Age UK Lambeth had some very interesting handouts. Age UK Lambeth is an independent local charity working in Lambeth to offer support and services to older people.
I also checked a few things from the Kooth stall, which provides an anonymous site which helps children and young people to feel safe and confident in exploring their concerns and seeking professional support.
Then I spoke to Nathan who running the Lewisham, Greenwich and Southwark Samaritans stall. Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide
The next stall I visited was from Southwark Healthwatch. Healthwatch Southwark are the independent champion for the patient and public voice. They bring people together to influence health and social care services in Southwark to make them better. Everything they say and do is informed by their engagement with local people. Their aim is to address inequalities in health and social care and ensure local services are appropriate for Southwark’s diverse communities.
I then spoke to familiar faces at Lambeth Carers Hub. The carers hub seek to limit the challenges that carers face. They achieve this through four core workstreams: raising awareness of carers, influencing local policy through community engagement activities, improving carer wellbeing and connecting carers to each other and to support and training opportunities through their services.
I was also privileged to be part of the mental health fair as I promoted information on unpaid carers these being info on Carers UK, plus I gave away some of the books I wrote on carer awareness for those caring for someone with a mental illness and promoted my group for the Southwark & Lambeth MH carers forum.
Other important stalls were on the Mind and Body programme where they are committed to join up and deliver excellent mental and physical healthcare, research and education so that they treat the whole person.
There were many other organisations and stalls, but overall I felt the event was great partnership working with the community as we all work together with the hospital to increase awareness, health and wellbeing for all.
Here is another blog post from carer activist Matthew McKenzie. I recently just came from a steering group event from St George’s University. This took place on the 30th of October. The groups focus was on how the hospital trust can work towards identifying and supporting unpaid carers.
St Georges University Hospital
It might seem such a silly question, but I am sure someone out there is asking why should hospitals work towards identifying unpaid carers?
There simple question is unpaid carers are struggling. They struggle with caring for someone and will expect to struggle when their loved one is discharged from hospital. If the carer is not identified then all to often the carer will have a bad experience of hospital services, which will probably impact on the cared for.
This has to change and fortunately there is a new strategy to improve carers discharge using a toolkit called the “Carers and Hospital Discharge toolkit“
This initiative is from NHS England which was co-produced with carers and patients in mind.
Every so often I pay some attention to acute hospital trusts. I even have a carers stall at St George’s University hospital, just as I do at some other hospitals. I was delighted to be invited to the steering group to see how things are progressing with the hospital trust.
Implementing a carer initiative regarding patient discharge is no easy feat. St George’s university hospital is a massive trust with around 9000 staff. Part of the Epsom and St Helier group. St George’s serves a population of 1.3 million across southwest London possibily covering 8 London Boroughs.
So what were the updates from St Georges Carers Steering group?
Well with the group chaired by Wendy Doyle who is the NHS trust Head of Patient Experience.
There was the launch for Carers Week in June 2023, the NHS acute trust has done the following
Started to connect with colleagues and key collaborations including healthwatches, NHS staff and carer centres.
St Georges team have also Identified an Executive Sponsor
Plus they continue to raise awareness of the toolkit
They hosted the first steering group with the focus on when to run the group.
The group also looked to how they could implement the toolkit.
They looked at implementing toolkit as a QI project
The team also spent time with discharge team, Rise, Cerner leads, London care Record, and NHSE to explore date capture
What impressed me on what St Georges hospital trust were doing is tailoring their patient system “Cerner” with a method of recording carer information.
There also has been a lot of work on the new carer’s leaflet, which was co-design leaflet for staff to signposting to carers. Since I have a carers stall, the leaflets will be useful to help engage with carers.
There will be a lot of work to do, but I am impressed with how far the university hospital is making a difference for unpaid carers.
Live in Lambeth? Healthwatch Lambeth are marking World Mental Health Day for Wednesday 18th of October. The aim of Healthwatch is to give citizens and communities a stronger voice to influence and challenge how health and social care services are provided within their locality.
World Mental Health Day 2023 is an opportunity for people and communities to unite behind the theme ‘Mental health is a universal human right” to improve knowledge, raise awareness and drive actions that promote and protect everyone’s mental health as a universal human right.
Welcome to another blog post from carer activist Matthew McKenzie. As a carer I find it vital that carers of those going through mental ill health get a chance for engagement from services. Friends and families tend to hidden away supporting their loved ones. They want the best support, but often struggle to be heard.
As one of the carer ambassadors for Cygnet health care, I was delighted to attend and support their latest carer network event. There have been a series of carer network events taking place around Cygnet sites and the latest one was held over at Cygnet Hospital over in Harrow. The event was planned in coproduction by Laura Sheridan Group Service Improvement Manager for Cygnet. Laura helps lead on the carer network programme and triangle of care focus at Cygnet.
For our latest carer event we had a fantastic line up of speakers. Cygnet health care want carers to be part of their network and want carers to be involved by leading from the front. Our first speaker was Lesley Mellor who is Parent Carer. She is also one of the carer ambassadors for Cygnet health care. Lesley shared her knowledge about the importance of including carers and the promise that Cygnet health care will be there to support unpaid carers.
The next speaker was Sharon Spurling who is the Triangle of Care Programme Lead at Carers Trust. Cygnet Health care wants to strenghen its policies to have that carer focus. The triangle of care programme offers that chance to raise carer identification and engagement to the highest standard. Several of Cygnet hospitals are working on triangle of care standards at their sites. With carers at our latest network event, it was a chance to promote what triangle of care is all about.
We also had Julie Garbett present about Julie is a Regional Nurse Director (London and South), Cygnet Julie is a registered mental health nurse of 20 years, with a vast range of experience gained working for NHS Mental Health Trusts and CMHTS in the South East. Julie spoke about how important carers are to Cygnet. Julie helped identify how carers are not just one group, unpaid carers can be anyone.
At the event carers were looked after with a lovely meal and a chance to network with speakers and with other carers.
We then heard from Matthew Gill who is Director of Psychology Services Midlands at Cygnet. He is a Consultant Forensic Psychologist with over 20 years of experience. Matthew is a committee member for the British Psychological Society and an AIMS assessor for the Royal College of Psychiatry. Matthew spoke about the importance of talking therapies. You can see from one of the slides on what Matthew covered below.
It was important we get to hear from the lived experience voice of the carer. Julian de Takats – Parent carer told his story and his thoughts about the carer experience. Julian as another carer ambassodor for cygnet health is passionate about carers being able to network and working together in a peer environment. Julian worked in the music industry before accidentally becoming a carer. Julian has been an active member of the Cygnet Carers Network since 2022 and is now proudly an Expert by Experience Carer Ambassador.
Next up to present at the carer network event was Dr Richard Church who is the Medical Director, Cygnet Hospital Woking. Dr Church studied medicine at the University of Cambridge and undertook general psychiatric training at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. After working in the NHS for over 15 years, in November 2017, Dr Church joined Cygnet Woking as Medical Director and Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist. Dr Richard spoke about the barriers carers face when speaking to services. Richard gave an honest presentation that cygnet also faces challenges when working with carers, but he also gave thoughts on how cygnet with working with those challenges.
My thoughts summing up the event
The location, theme, presentations and speakers were excellent. Time and time again I state it is important the mental health, social care and health providers hold engagement events on what they offer to carers. It is not enough to promote an offer to carers as unpaid carers need to be involved and also need empowered to network, develop peer skills and work with providers.
Cygnet health care are setting an example that carers play an important part of recovery. Carers should not be hidden away struggling to support and provide care. I do admit that health and social care is struggling with the challenges they face, but we all need to work together. I hope we continue to reach out to carers, promote carer focused policies and be held to account on our promise to carers. This is a new journey for cygnet, but we want to share the journey with our carers.
A Caring Mind 