Tag Archives: carers

Bringing the Lambeth community together for health and wellbeing.

Welcome back to another blog by carer activist Matthew McKenzie. I run many groups aimed at those caring for someone unpaid. They could be caring for someone suffering mental illness or caring for someone affected by cancer. One of the groups I run is the Joint Southwark & Lambeth mental health carers forum.

So I was delighted to attend a fun filled community event over in Lambeth.

The weather was perfect for the health event. The event focused on the Lambeth community and beyond. It was a way to bring the community together.

We all have something in common, just as we all have importance in health and wellbeing. So it was a fun afternoon where everyone could come together and learn what the borough of Lambeth if providing for the community.

The event was called “Thriving Vassall and Coldharbour Health Day”. It took place over at Wyck Gardens on the 21 July 2023 from 3pm to 7pm.

When I attended the wellbeing festival, the first thing I noticed was how everyone was enjoying themselves. There was no fussing or fighting, people were relaxing, enjoying the music, learning about health and eating the food provided.

I met up and chatted with Karen Hooper who is a carer and does so much to promote community links in Lambeth.

I then spoke to stall holders at Age UK Lambeth, Disability UK Lambeth, Kooth stall, SHARP Gallery and more.

The Wellbeing Festival provided fun for all the family. Workshops and activities to help attendees stay fit and healthy. It was great to see a focus on young people’s mental health from the Kooth stall.

We also had stalls from South London & Maudsley regarding mental wellbeing services.

Involvement and providing feedback on health services is so important. So it was great to see Lambeth Healthwatch giving advice and information at their stall.

I noticed there was Jewellery Making and Face painting for children attending as it is great for young people to get creative. There was also a bouncy castle.

There were other Stall holders including Lambeth Childhood, Active Lambeth, Primary Care Network engagement (especially from the social perscribers). We also had stall information from Moasaic Club House, Certitude, Loughborough Farm, Buzwakk Recording Studio, Big Kid Foundation, Repowering London and Lambeth Libraries.

We also had some great singing performances on the day.

With so much bringing the community together, I enjoyed my visit to the Health and Wellbeing day, everyone was friendly and many wanted to chat about their services to help the community.

A big thank you to the main organisers Anthea, at Thriving Vassall & Coldhabour (Fiveways), Surjit from Ecosystem Coldharbour and Kamika from Chips and to everyone who came to the event.

June Monthly Carer & Health News Updates 2023

Latest carer and mental health news for June by carer activist and author Matthew McKenzie

June 2023 Carer and Mental Health news <- read more news items here

For the May edition on unpaid caring and mental health we have

Carer Videos

Carers Week: Lambeth Young Carers

Carers Week – Lanakshire Carers

Carers Week 2023 Wrap Up and Thank You! – Solihull Carers

Latest Carer News

Thousands of deprived unpaid carers in south east London

UK Gov announces cross-government action to support carers

Rapid review into data on mental health inpatient settings: final report and recommendations

Why are Lasting Powers of Attorney important to unpaid carers?

Carer’s Leave – the new law explained

State of Caring conference 2023 – Carers UK

NHS Long Term Workforce Plan

Other news updates

Cancer – NHS England

Carers UK  good practice briefing for supporting Black, Asian and minority ethnic carers

Greater Manchester black patients 3 times as likely to be detained

Macmillan Cancer Support – Carers Week

Caring for someone with a terminal illness

Allied Health Professions Strategy for England Easy Read Version

Cancer Survivors Day – Guy’s Cancer Centre

Welcome to another blog by carer activist and author Matthew McKenzie. I raise awareness of mental health carers and those caring for someone affected by Cancer. With my focus on cancer awareness, I paid a visit to guy’s cancer centre. On Sunday 25th of June they put on a lovely event “Cancer Survivors Day – A celebration of Hope”.

There are currently 3 million people living with cancer in the UK. With such an event there is always hope to battle and survive cancer. The event focused not only on the importance of hope, but also to acknowledge the clinical and research skills that is offered to the community.

The event was supported by Guys Cancer centre, Kings College London, Kings Health Partners, South East London Cancer Alliance and Guy’s Cancer Charity.

However on such a hot day, what things did I see at the event?

A fair amount of my time I was chatting to stall holders about what they were presenting. One of the most important stalls was the Cancer Care Map Stall.

Cancer Care Map is a simple, online resource that aims to help you find cancer support services in your local area wherever you are in the UK. Cancer Care Map is run by The Richard Dimbleby Cancer Fund charity.

So why is that stall important for me? Two reasons to be honest. I am known for running carer groups, plus I network with unpaid carers a lot. With my links to health and social care services, it is about time I started a cancer carer group. I have always wondered what happens to those caring for someone with cancer. Where do hospitals send them? Are carer centres focused on cancer carers?

With Cancer Care Map, I can advertise my group although I still would need support of the hospitals. It is important carers are given a voice and they should not be forgotten. The other reason is Cancer Care Map team will provide resources for my carer information stall.

I also visited a few other other stalls, but here is a small list of the ones I visited.

Speech and Language stall
Physiotherapy stall
Tree of Hope
Cancer Research UK
Dietitians
Occupational Therapy stall

At the start of the event, we were given an opening speech by David Cheeseman who is director of strategy at Royal Free Charity. Plus an opening speech from Anne Rigg who is consultant medical oncologist and medical director for Cancer & Surgery.

After the inspirational talk, it was on the the fashion show. I was inspired by the models energy and creativity.

The audience certainly enjoyed the show and it was a great turnout.

After speaking to more stall holders, I bumped into Jannike Nordlund who is the Patient Involvement Lead and Cancer Improvement Manager South East London Cancer Alliance. There will be some good focus for carers so watch this space. I still need to chat to the 3 other London cancer alliance leads, but that will take time.

Eventually I came back to the main stage to listen to the string Orchestra, which I found relaxing.

All in all, I really enjoyed the event and felt the message so important for those living with cancer and beyond. We need to celebrate the importance of hope, there is always a chance and everyone plays a part.

Thanks for reading.

Carer reception at No 10 for Carers Awareness week 2023

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.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cross-government-action-announced-to-champion-carers

Thanks for reading.

Carers Week – NHS Toolkit launch at St Georges university hospital trust.

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

https://carers.org/resources/all-resources/142-carers-and-hospital-discharge-toolkit-for-london-hospitals-and-community-providers

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.

Regional Carer event – Cygnet Hospital Bierley

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

May Carer & Mental Health News Updates 2023

Latest carer and mental health news for May by carer activist and author Matthew McKenzie

May 2023 Carer and Mental Health news <- read more news items here

For the May edition on unpaid caring and mental health we have

Write to your MP – Carers Week – Stop asking your MP about potholes in the road, ask them something about the state of social care.

Carers’ Assessments webinar 16 May 2023 – Carers UK webinar on Carers Assessments

Somerset Carers Week 2023 – Somerset Carers centre promotion of Carers Week 2023

Northamptonshire Carers Podcast Episode 3 – Spring is in the air – Podcast about the caring and unpaid carers.

Carers Trust Heart of England once again awarded Coventry young carers contract – Well done Carers Trust Heart of England

Right to unpaid leave for carers set to become law – Splended campaign from Wendy Chamberlin.

Richmond Carer’s Centre – Supporting young carers – Richond carers campaign.

Give feedback on care – CQC – Important to give to CQC if you are a carer

Facilitators’guide: NHS@75 – Guide to help explain NHS England;s campaign

POhWER – Got a complaint? Need an Advocate? PohWER can help

RESEARCH PAPERS

Caregiver wellbeing during Covid-19: does being hopeful play a role? – Paper written by Juliana Onwumere, Elizabeth Kuipers, Emilie Wildman, Ava Mason, Daniel Stahl

Family intervention for psychosis: Impact of training on clinicians’ attitudes, knowledge and behaviour – Paper written by Jacqueline Sin, Steven Livingstone, Maria Griffiths, Catherine Gamble

In one’s own time: Contesting the temporality and linearity of bereavement – Paper done by Katherine Kenny, Alex Broom, Emma Kirby and Damien Ridge

Diversity BAME Mental health news updates

  1. Carers UK  good practice briefing for supporting Black, Asian and minority ethnic carers
  2. Caring for the carers: ITV Meridian presenter Sangeeta Bhabra’s letter to her younger self
  3. Black, Asian And Ethnically Diverse Carers – Carers Manchester

Greenwich Healthwatch BAME carer co-researchers

What is this project about?

Healthwatch Greenwich project wants to uncover experiences and understand
access to carer support, information, and services for Black and Ethnic Minority carers. By sharing your experiences, and speaking to other carers, you can help Healthwatch Greenwich identify the strategies and solutions that will enable Black and Ethnic
Minority carers receive the best possible support.

How will we carry out this project?

Healthwatch Greenwich are excited to partner with Black and Ethnic Minority carers as paid co-researchers in this project. As experts by experience, you’ll bring unique perspectives that are essential to its success.

Who can be a co-researcher?

  • An adult carer: Someone who looks after or gives any
    help or support to a family member, friend or
    neighbour because of long term physical disability,
    mental ill-health or problems related to old age. The
    care they give is unpaid.
  • From a Black or ethnic minority background
    What will co-researchers do?
  • Contribute to the design of the project.
  • Find and speak to other Black and ethnic minority
    carers
  • Contribute to the analysis and presentations of the
    findings.
  • Take part in training and support sessions.
    How much will co-researchers be paid?
    Co-researchers will receive £15/hour. Hourly payment
    includes all additional expenses involved in taking part in this
    project, such as care costs, childcare payments, telephone,
    and travel costs.
    Co-researchers will take part in up to 8 days of involvement
    work spread across a number of days between June and
    September 2023.

How do I apply?
If you’re interested, Healthwatch Greenwich ask you to complete a short
application and have a friendly interview. Please contact Jahan at jahan@healthwatchgreenwich.co.uk or on 07498 851 221.

Diverse Experiences of unpaid Carers Across the caring Trajectory

A new research project is underway at the University of Kent. The research is called Diverse Experiences of unpaid Carers Across the caring Trajectory (DECAT). DECAT is looking for carers to take part in a telephone interview about their experience of being a carer. Currently, Black and Asian carers and carers who are LGBT+ are under-represented within our participants.

The main aim of this study is to understand the factors linked to carers’ satisfaction with social services and quality of life over time.

A questionnaire will be sent to a sample of carers recruited via four local authorities containing questions previously collected in the 2018/19 Personal Social Survey for Adult Carers in England, plus additional questions. The degree to which carers’ satisfaction and quality of life scores differ from scores collected in 2018/19 will be examined. Factors associated with changes will be explored and the scores of subgroups of carers will be compared.

You can contact Dr Diane Fox

Contact

Diane Fox
University of Kent
Personal Social Services Research Unit
Cornwallis Central
Canterbury
Kent
CT2 7NF

Email

d.fox@kent.ac.uk

See poster for details

Promo of Discriminated by Matthew McKenzie

Welcome back fellow carers. Carer Story number 8 is nearly finished. As promised, I am continuing to write carer fictional stories. These stories are based on those caring for someone suffering mental illness.

All audio and video stories are from the book I am working on “Providing Care & Other short stories”. I aim to write 20 short carer stories and add them to an audio book. The quality of the audio stories are increasing each time.

Story number 8 is unfortunately very difficult to listen to. Not because of any quality issues, but due to the nature of the story. As a carer campaigner, I often raise awareness of mental health carers. This time I am focusing on ethnic mental health carers. The story discriminated looks at the challenges a young black woman called Jennifer will face when caring for her brother Darren.

The story also follows Darren’s traumatic journey through the mental health system and the fragmented role of the NHS and the Police.

At the time of the release of this story, you might have heard the police refusing to take mental health calls.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65741824

Once you have watched this story, you will probably understand why. With mental illness increasing at rapid levels, health and social care are struggling to catch up. It is now the family, friends who are caring that will have to step in.

The question remains on if unpaid mental health carers have the resources to cope.

Story number 8 – Discriminated to be release soon.

Listen to the promo below.