Welcome back to another blog post by carer activist and author Matthew McKenzie.
It has come to the end of Carers Week 2023. I decided to do one last final event after a successful carers week. This event was located at Barclays Bank over in Croydon.
As part of their support for Carers Week 2023, Barclays Bank was promoting Carers UK information and resources at their flagship UK branches below. As a Carers UK Community Connector volunteer I felt I could help raise awareness of Carers Week with Barclays’ customers.
Carers Week is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring, highlight the challenges unpaid carers face and recognise the contribution they make to families and communities throughout the UK.
This would allow me to connect with unpaid carers who could access support.
Just so you know Carers UK is a national charity looking to make life better for the 5.7 million carers across the UK.
As it stands, a carer is a person of any age who provides unpaid care and support to a family member, friend or neighbour who is disabled, has an illness or long-term condition, or who needs extra help as they grow older.
So with the awareness campaign of Carers Week, it helped to promote awareness of caring and promote access to support for carers. Just by chance across the road Barclays bank in Croydon, was also the Carers Information service.
The Carers Information Service provides information, advice and support for carers living in, or caring for someone who lives in, the London Borough of Croydon. The staff were kind to provide me some leaflets incase I need to refer carers there.
I spent several hours that saturday speaking to customers who wanted to know more about Carers UK. I also brought some samaritan cards along. Staff at the bank were kind and supportive. There was a focus on community spirit as the bank wants to support people from all walks of life, including carers.
Barclays Bank also have information available on their website for customers if they are needing to set up access to support someone they are caring for https://www.barclays.co.uk/third-party-access/
Welcome back fellow carer readers. Another blog post from Carer activist and author Matthew McKenzie. At the time of this post, it is Carers Awareness week. This is the week where awareness and support for carers is promoted from the 5th to 11th June 2023. Carers Awareness week is an annual awareness campaign. It helps to remind others that even caring for someone unwell does not have to go unrecognised.
Caring for someone close can be a hidden and isolating reality for millions across the UK. So it helps to know what the promise is from decision makers.
I was fortunate enough to be included at a reception for carers and carer representatives at 10 Downing street. Just so you know, that address is the official residence and office of the prime minister of the United Kingdom.
Everyone was friendly and welcoming. Even Larry the Cat
I have always said to others that if you are going to be an activist it would be wise to raise the profile of what you are campaigning for. Of course, most of the time I am trying to network carers together. It helps to understand what we all go through and why we go through challenges as carers.
The reception led by Carers UK for Carers Week was also supported by Age UK, Carers Trust, MND Association, the Lewy Body Society, Rethink Mental Illness and Oxfam. We are all partners in raising awareness for unpaid carers.
It was not just a reception, as we were greated by Minister for Care, Helen Whately.
The minister announced a cross-government roundtable to champion carers’ needs across Whitehall. Helen also introduced more measures to support carers across the country. Despite the challenges the government is under, it is important that there is a focus on carers doing so much to care for those close to them. Unpaid carers asking for hardly anything except to be noticed for their struggle and sacrifice as health and social care face great challenges.
I am grateful to have attended and network with fellow carers and those doing so much to support caring. We want a caring community and it is only fair to promote and support this. You can read more about the fuction below.
Welcome to a special carers week 2023 blog from Matthew McKenzie carer activist and author. As a carer’s activist, I often try raise awarness of unpaid carers. I even try to raise awareness at hospital NHS Trusts. One of the hospital NHS Trusts is based over in South West London. This hospital is St George’s University hospital.
Basically it is one of the country’s principal teaching hospitals, which is shared with St George’s, University of London, which trains medical students and carries out advanced medical research. The NHS trust has more than 9,000 staff and is one of the four major trauma centres for London.
I actually run a carers information stall at the hospital to remind staff and carers about the carer’s role.
It was great to hear that I was invited to the London discharge toolkit which is being rolled out across all NHS acute trusts in London. The toolkit was developed by Debbie Hustings involving many carer organisations and carers with co-production.
With my involvement in NHS England, I have a keen interest to see how the toolkit increases the focus on unpaid carers.
The toolkit serves many purposes, as in educating NHS staff, raising carers rights and examining challenges in the health system.
I have fedback my thoughts to NHS England regarding the toolkit and a few other things. Below is the link to the toolkit
So on 8th of June I attended the Launch of the toolkit at St Georges university hospital
I was joined by NHS England carer lead for London as we spoke to NHS staff working so hard to make changes for unpaid carers.
We also spoke to carer centre representatives, carers and third party organisations. I picked up a number of leaflets for my carer’s stall, but also spoke to a few people about the information provided.
All in all, staff at St Georges were confident of rising to the challenge to engage and support unpaid carers.
Welcome to another blog post from Carer activist Matthew McKenzie. I do many roles to connect with unpaid carers and I am now a Expert by Experience Carer Ambassador for Cygnet. I want to keep carers at the heart of healthcare services and one of the best ways to do this is speak at conferences.
Cygnet Health Care is taking on the challenge of and striving to make sure mental health carers get the best support possible. Cygnet are running “Regional Carer Network events”.
This recent Carer Network Event took place at one of Cygnet’s sites. That being Cygnet Hospital Bierley.
Before the event, Cygnet’s Group Service Improvement Manager Lauran Sheridan provided support to make sure Carer Ambassador’s were looked after. It was thanks to Laura that we were given a voice and place to reach out to carers who often feel they are forgotten.
We had a lovely stay at Premier Inn and the food was lovely. It was important to get a good nights rest to feel refreshed and ready to engage with staff at Cygnet and unpaid carers.
Just before the event, I took the time to explore the wonderful City of Bradford and event went walking along some rocks to watch the sunset.
AT THE EVENT
As usual, the first thing I look for when I enter a hospital is to examine what is displayed for unpaid carers. I was glad to see a Carer’s board and advertisements for carer events and initiatives e.g.
Events Calendar,
Awareness of Carers Week 2023,
who is the Carer’s Lead
Triangle of Care
Family & Carer strategy …..and lots more..
I opened the event with a focus on why I think carer networks are so important. I often write books on why carers need to connect and also why services should provide the empowerment and platform for carers to connect. If we connect, we can listen and try to understand the complex world of unpaid carers.
The speakers for the Regional Carer Network event were as follows.
Kate Mercer who is a Family Advocate from Black Belt Advocacy. Kate spoke about carer’s rights. She has worked on national projects with NICE, CSIP, NDTi and NHS England, most recently looking into the quality and availability of advocacy within in-patient settings for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
We also had Christian Young who is the General Counsel at Cygnet Health Care. Christian qualified as a lawyer in 1998, he then joined NHS England as Deputy Head of Legal Services before moving on to Cygnet.
Next to present was Philip Winterbottom who is Head of Safeguarding at Cygnet Health Care. Philip did an excellent presentation on the importance of safeguarding at health services. It is important we all know our duties to provide the best care of those who use our services.
We also was joined by Jo-Ann McAuliffe who is Deputy Director of Nursing. Jo spoke about the importance of recognising carers and how Cygnet can work with unpaid carers.
Lesley Mellor who is the other Expert by Experience Carer Ambassador for Cygnet spoke about her experience of providing care. Lesley is the is the chair of Dorset Parent Carer Council.
During the event, attendees were certainly looked after. We had a lovely lunch and I actually took some of the food home with me.
Cygnet also provided carers we lots of information, where Laura and Jo promoted Cygnet’s new Carers Strategy with more carer information to take home after the event.
All in all I enjoyed the regional carer network event and have connected to a few carers. The network will take time to develop, but we can all learn from each other. As the core of the Triangle of Care, we need to balance the connection so carers are not shut out.
Thanks for reading. More blogs to come for Carers Week 2023
Welcome back to another blog post by carer activist Matthew McKenzie. This site focuses on those who provide unpaid care to someone close to them. Recently I have just come back from a 2 day conference held over at Conference Aston just by Aston University Campus. The event held on 17th May was Carers Trust’s “Making Carers Count” conference.
You might have seen a couple of blog posts about Carers Trust. Basically Carers Trust is a national charity that works to transform the lives of unpaid carers. Carers trust believe in partnership in order to give support and voices to unpaid carers. They have 124 Network Partners all doing their bit to transform change for unpaid carers.
Basically Carers Trust want unpaid carers to be heard, valued and supported.
So with the “Making Carers Count” conference. We were joined by some of the network partners to “Reflect, Connect & Learn”.
The day kicked off with a carer panel discussion. We were joined by 3 carers all giving their voice on the changes to their lives in providing unpaid care. Those on the panel were not your average carers. They also empowered other carers and were knowledgable about their caring role. A young carer on the panel mentioned she had other skills and should not be counted as just a carer.
She was also joined other carers talking about their journey and how their own carers centre helped them.
The attendees and network partners paired up to work on a session looking to understanding different carer projects. Plus we also celebrated collective achievements. In attendance were representatives from Tower Hamelets, Carers UK, Mid Yorkshire , blackpool carers, Wandsworth Carers, Credu carers, Crossroad carers, Carers First, Carers Heart of England, City and Hackney carers, Sussex Carers, Northants Carers, Newcastle carers centre, Bridgend Carers Centre, Harrow Carers and many more.
It was amazing to hear all the good work each carer centre had done. We have done so much over the Carers Trust programme, but there is much more to do. The networking was followed up by a Collective solutions event. Carers Trust then presented the importance of working together and we had a discussion on project challenges regarding the Making Carers Count Programme.
There were some great project updates
Carers Heart of England – Projects on the rise of engagement with their cultural carer groups and key events such as the Diwali Event.
Wandsworth Carers – Their LGBTO+ carers peer support group
Improving Lives Plymouth – Projects on the importance of peer to peer support growing, due to monthly drop ins and activities.
Newcastle Carers – Developing and understanding of the needs of carers from Asylum seeker and refugee communities in Newcastle
City & Hackney – Engaging with young people, especially using technology like their whatsApp group.
There were more project highlights from aother carer centres, but the blog would go on forever if I listed all of them. The conference moved on to discussing and identifying actions and recommendations for the Carers Trust Network due to their latest “Making Carers Count” Programme.
For Day 2 of the conference, I was delighted to be included on the panel discussion of developing and designing inclusive services for carers. I was joined on the panel with Andy Barber from “Caring Together” and Vicky Morgan who is the Head of Young Carers and Young Adult Carers at Carers Trust. Thanks to Trisha Thompson (Carers Trust head of grants) hosting the panel.
My thoughts regarding service inclusion is that it takes time for carers to get involved. To be honest inclusive services should be including carers at the start, especially hearing carer stories and picking up themes that carers struggle with.
With those themes e.g. problems with carer assessments, being heard as a carer, or access to a service. It might allow the carer to give input on how to improve the quality of services.
I mentioned earlier on in the blog that Northamptonshire carers attended and at my talk I mentioned that the service provided by Northants carers actually won the HSJ 2022 award for system led support for carers. The award for 2021 went to Sussex carers, but it does go to show that having such network partners makes a difference for carers.
We can all learn from each other.
I could not stay for the full conference, although there were excellent presentations from other attendees. Plus a pleasent suprise to meet Carers UK staff.
overall I enjoyed the event and was very grateful to be given a voice as a carer.
You can find more about Carers Trust from the link below.
Welcome to another carer blog post by carer activist Matthew McKenzie. I raise awareness of carers who try so hard to provide unpaid care to loved ones. However I am not the only one fighting for carer empowerment or making sure carers get counted.
We have several national organisations promoting the value of caring. One of those charities is Carers UK. A major charity giving the voice to carers all around the country. I have been doing quite a few things for Carers UK, one of them being the co-chair of their ethnic/BAME carers advisory group.
I have also attended and spoke at Carers UK conferences and have been given major support regarding my poems.
So today was a special treat in order to celebrate all what good works are promoted across the nation. We were invited to the Royal Garden Party, which was a special occasion due to the recent coronation of King Charles III.
At any party or event I tend to network or try to network, so it was great to meet other carers including CEO of Carers UK Helen Walker.
The weather held up the best it could so the day went perfectly well, but I did bring an Umbrella just incase. As we walked across the grounds we marvelled at the Royal gardens. I can imagine myself being lost in thought as there was so much to see.
After walking through the gardens, I could hear music growing louder and this was coming from the royal bands. We were spoilt for choice as there were two bands playing at each end of the grounds.
We then waited to greet the royals, but I was hungry left for some food and came back only to find the Royals had greeted one of our group. Serves me right for being too greedy.
Still the food was marvellous, but the problem was that I ate the food too fast in order to try network again.
The staff were pleasant and friendly and often stopped to chat to make sure everything was ok. I felt I was the king the way the staff treated me. One of them showed us some Ice Cream as she explained the different flavours.
It was not long before it started to rain with that famous British weather, but by that time I had talked to the other carers who contribute so much to carer movement.
All in all, I felt special and to be treated to such an important function shows the Royals have a focus for a caring community.
If you want to find more about Carers UK, check out the link below.
Welcome back to another blog by carer activist Matthew McKenzie. I often blog about raising awareness for those caring for someone with mental illness. If I am not raising awareness, then I am more likely speaking at events or conferences.
I am helping to promote a carer’s network with Cygnet Healthcare who are taking on the challenge of applying Triangle of Care into their services. So far I have opened several carer events at some of the Cynet hospitals around the country along with other speakers who are invested in raising the profile of unpaid carers.
For this event, I attended Cygnet Hospital over in Maidstone for another regional carer event. This was an opportunity to engage with carers from the area of Kent, especially since I am involved with Kent and Medway NHS Partnership Trust. So I was keen to travel to Maidstone and talk to carers.
We had a packed room of carers and professionals interested to hear talks about the importance of supporting carers.
There were certain things I was looking for at the hospital, especially the effort staff had put into promoting the carer event. I noticed lots of leaflets introducing what Cygnet can do for unpaid carers. Other information was on Cygnet’s carers strategy, carers passport and a chance for people to feedback about services.
I even managed to view the carer’s board.
We had some excellent speakers at the event. Plus it was great to see David Wilmott who is Cgynet’s Director of Nursing open the event. We also had a powerful talk from Lesley Mellor who told her story as a carer and the importance of carer empowerment.
Other speakers were Stephen Firn OBE who is Cygnet’s CEO for Healthcare division. Stephen spoke about his mission to make sure cygnet hospitals have a high focus of carer awareness. During my talk, I reminded attendees that when senior staff attend such events, it shows how the organisation values unpaid carers.
For my talk, I read poem number 28 on the importance of a carer’s network. Often carers do their role in isolation and behind closed doors.
The nature of the illness makes it difficult for mental health carers to connect due to stigma of caring,, being unsure of their role and also the stigma of mental illness.
I asked both professionals and carers their thoughts on the importance of providing care and the importance of connecting to a network.
I was proud that the healthcare professionals were knowledgable about the importance of including carers when providing services. This is done within the spirit of the Triangle of care.
We also had talks and presentations from Dr Erica De Lange who is Cygnet’s Regional director of Psychology. Plus Caroline Harris-Birtles who is Head of Nurse Education at Cygnet Healthcare. She educated carers about the importance of the nursing profession and how nurses can help unpaid carers.
Lastly we had a talk from Jennifer Vincent who works at Involve Kent. Jennifer is the team Lead in the Community for Carers. Involve is an organisation that focuses on Healthy, connected people and communities. Jennifer talked about how Involve empowers and support Carers, enabling them to care well for others and improve their own health and wellbeing.
I again have to thank Laura Sheridan who looked after both Lesley, myself and attendees at the carer event. I look forward to more events in future.
Welcome back to another blog post by carer activist, author and poet Matthew McKenzie. I just thought to do a quick blog about an exciting and important event I attended last night.
Carers Trust a national charity to promotes and supports unpaid carers have reached an important milestone. It was their 50th Anniversary and to celebrate that milestone, the charity held their event over at the Old Bailey.
I have never been to such a pretigous building before and I am still wondering how on earth Carers Trust managed to hold their event there. The event was a drinks reception along with important speeches as to why Carers Trust fights so hard for carers. Do you remember the TV soap drama Crossroads? If you do, then you might remember a particular 1973 Crossroads theme regarding someone caring after a car crash. This led to viewers sending mail about their thoughts and experiences, which in turn led to a national drive on support for unpaid carers.
You can watch a short video below showing the history of Carers Trust
The beginnings of Carers Trust was explained in detail by Angela Rippon CBE who was a guest at the drinks reception. Her lived experience, knowledge and drive to battle for unpaid carers was an inspiration.
The event was hosted by Sheriff Alastair King who opened the event. We also had speeches from chair of Carers Trust John McLean OBE and CEO of Carers Trust Kirsty McHugh. I admit I have never met Kirsty before, but she has lots of energy and dashes around very fast.
At the event I was introduced to those who also championed the role of unpaid carers. Rohati Chapman Exec Director at Carers trust was an excellent host and made me feel welcomed.
The speech by young carer, Aditya Akella was exceptional as he mentioned the themes that are important to young carers. A lot of the themes I often present regarding talks I do about my books. The most important is carers do their role out of Love including other things.
As I wandered around the drink’s reception, I could not help be taken in by the hall. The old Bailey is majestic and historical. The importance of justice, fighting for others and of motto’s etched on the walls require some serious investigation. There is a lot about the place I still do not understand, but reflecting back, the building holds a significant reason as to why people fight so hard for what is important to the community. I am not a barrister, Laywer or Judge, I am just a simple carer activist, but deep down I feel the Old Bailey actually wanted the event to be held there. This goes double to those who take the time to fight for the vulnerable.
I am aware that as a majority we still strive to do what is right, but because some roles are done for free, there are people who feel there is not much value in such roles. A just and civil society should try to value those sacrifices, because in the end it is what sustains the community.
All in all, I enjoyed the drinks reception and I wish Carers Trust success in the future.
Welcome back to another carers blog by Matthew McKenzie. It recently was World Social Work Day, which took place on the 21st March 2023. The theme for 2023 World Social work day was ‘Respecting diversity through joint social action. Social workers are very important if you are caring for someone. It helps to get that extra support regarding your role as an unpaid carer.
Social workers are becoming a rare resource these days, so it is important to raise awareness of social workers. It is also important to value them. World Social Work day allows social workers worldwide stand together to send the common message of relieving people’s suffering, fight for social justice, and improve lives and communities.
Social works help people with health, psychological or social problems. This in turn builds healthier communities. It was fortunate I was allowed to present at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust World Social work day event.
The event took place at Maudsley’s conference centre “Ortus”
The event organisers used the theme on learning from the voices of service users and carers in mental health social work.
We had some great speakers from that event. A special mention to Jo Lambert and her mental health focus. You can check out her books in the link below.
I started off my presentation on what I feel was the importance of world social work day. Of course I asked the audience what they thought about the awareness day. I then read a poem from my book “The Poetry book of mental health caring”
You can see my presentation from my video below.
The poem I read was called “My Story”
I then told how my carer’s journey unfolded and how Social workers worked with carer and service user.
How did Social workers helped my role as a carer?
I explained to the audience that it was important that social workers are knowledgeable of the services and explained them to my mother and myself.
Some social workers saw me as an asset. Some social workers saw me as part of a support network helping to support my mother.
It is important social workers use psychology to help heal. Some social workers talked about what can be done, rather than what could not be done, so constantly providing a positive focus.
One of the most important roles of a social worker is explaining about carers assessment. The carer’s assessment is an important tool for a carer to learn more about their needs.
Lastly referring me on to carer support was invaluable
All in all the NHS Maudsley gave me a powerful voice to promote my voice as a former mental health carer. I hope awareness of social workers continue to grow
Welcome back to another blog post by carer activist and author Matthew McKenzie. Only a few days until Young Carers Action day 2023, which will be on wednesday 15 of March. Young Carers Action day is an annual awareness and campaign event run by national carer’s charity Carers Trust.
If you are not sure what young carers do. They look after someone in the family unpaid and will have to cook, provide housework and even do shopping. It is not those tasks alone, young carers from the age of 5 can even provide physical care or emotional support. Young carers might even have to advocate for the person they care for or even help communicate for the ‘cared for’.
If you wish, you can check out my video on Young Carers Action day from my YouTube site below.
With all the tasks mentioned above and more, it makes sense that the theme for YCAD is “Make time for young carers”. It is important young people get the time for themselves since their role can be very demanding and caring for someone often comes with sacrifices. Later in life, people might have a choice in the care they provide, this cannot always be said for young carers who miss out on many opportunities. This could be in making friends with those at school, or missing out on education and skills training. When caring for someone, if you do not get a break then your own wellbeing is at risk.
So it is important young carers have access to breaks and are able to be identified early. When I was young, I did not know I was a young carer, so Young Carers Action Day helps raise awareness to young people who are caring. Once they know they are carers, then it is easier to ask for support and to ask to be identified.
Carers Trust want several things to happen for young carers.
improved support in schools
more access to breaks,
better access to counselling support
and more financial support.
If you want to help spread the message, check out Carers Trust resource pack from the link below
A Caring Mind 