Tag Archives: mental health carers

Social workers & Managers Away Day event – Unpaid carers in Southwark

On February 25th, 2025, carers, professionals, and support organizations gathered at Tooley Street for a Carers event provided by Southwark Council. The event was developed by Sarah Bullman, Senior Policy and Strategy Lead for Adult Social Care over in Southwark. The event, hosted by Simon Rayner, provided an opportunity to connect, share updates, and explore ways to support carers in the community.

Key Highlights from the Event:

🔹 Carefree – Presented by Salil Meech Mazumdar, Carefree shared their work in providing much-needed short breaks and respite opportunities for unpaid carers, ensuring they have time to rest and recharge.

🔹 Southwark Carers – Sarah Bullman introduced Southwark Carers including Verinder CEO of Southwark Carers, an essential organization offering tailored advice, practical support, and advocacy for carers in the borough of Southwark.

🔹 Mobilise – A digital-first platform supporting carers, Mobilise was discussed in depth, highlighting how online peer support and coaching can help carers navigate their roles more effectively.

🔹 Imago – Known for their work in youth and adult carer services, Imago shared updates on their projects that focus on young carers, connecting them with resources and professional guidance.

🔹 Carers Hub/Centre – Southwark council focus on a new Carers Hub set for next year, where updates on focus groups and workshops on how the carers centre will be used for supporting unpaid carers.

The last section of the event was below

🔹 Voice of the Carer & Carer Empowerment – Chloe Harvey and Sarah Bullman provided updates on Southwark’s Carers Strategy, reinforcing the importance of carer voices in shaping policy.

Plus Matthew McKenzie, a well-known carer advocate, spoke passionately about listening to carers, empowering them, and ensuring co-production in decision-making. He also read moving excerpts from his book, The Poetry of Mental Health Caring, which resonated deeply with attendees.

The event concluded with a networking lunch, allowing attendees to connect, share experiences, and strengthen their collective efforts in supporting carers.

This forum was a powerful reminder that carers should never feel alone—there is a strong and growing community dedicated to uplifting and advocating for them. 💙

Southwark & Lambeth carer forum update February 2025

Here is a brief update of the joint Southwark & Lambeth mental health carers forum I run the last monday of the month. The forum is a space for those caring for someone with mental ill health to connect and get updates from service providers.

As facilitator Matthew McKenzie emphasized the importance of managing guilt as a mental health carer, challenging unrealistic expectations, and setting boundaries for one’s own well-being. Matthew also stressed the need for self-care, seeking professional guidance, and advocating for respite care. The conversation ended with discussions on the concept of guilt, the challenges of being a carer, and strategies for holding care coordinators and social workers accountable.

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National Triangle of Care community meeting – January 2025

Welcome back to a brief update of the National Triangle of Care Commnity Group. A meeting organised by myself as a carer of lived experience to give a chance for mental health carers to find out developments on Triangle of Care. The online group is attended by unpaid mental health carers, Carers Trust triangle of Care leads and NHS carer representatives and mental health staff.

Agenda of Meeting

The meeting focused on discussing the Triangle of Care program, gathering feedback from carers, and addressing challenges in mental health care. Attendees shared experiences and insights on carer involvement, communication issues, and the need for improved support systems. Key topics included progress updates on the Triangle of Care implementation, the importance of carer perspectives in healthcare decision-making, and strategies to enhance carer engagement and representation across diverse groups.


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Greenwich Mental Health Carers forum March 2021

Welcome to my Greenwich Mental Health carers forum update for March. This is the 2nd Greenwich MH carers forum for 2021, since this is a fairly new forum aimed at families and carers who are caring for someone with mental illness.

The forum is not a support group, although there are times discussions may dwell on a supportive nature as members switch to talking about their own unpaid caring experiences. The Royal Borough of Greenwich MH carers forum aims to give families and unpaid carers a chance to talk to Mental health, health and social care services about how they can also support carers. The forum is a chance at engagement, involvement and empowerment for unpaid carers who would like to know what is going on with services. There also might be a chance to influence services when the Royol Borough of Greenwich mental health carers network grows in numbers.

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Southwark Mental Health Carers Forum September

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Welcome to Septembers Southwark Mental Health Carers Forum. Out of all the four Mental Health carer forums, This is one of the newer carer forums that has been set up to provide a platform for unpaid carers looking after someone suffering mental health problems in the London borough of Southwark.

To watch the video version, please click below

On the agenda for september was the following.

– An Update and discussion of what is going on in Southwark for MH carers
– brief feedback from the recent SLaM carers committee meeting.
– An update from Ana on her involvement at SLaM
– Discussion about the recent Southwark CCG engagement meeting
– Feedback on carer assessments meeting

As a group we discussed updates from August’s forum. Then moved on to what our local mental health trust is doing for its carers.

I presented the following being how South London & Maudsley’s carer committee’s development’s on their

  • Action Tracker
  • The new Terms of Reference/Code of Conduct which is to be approved
  • The New carer Co-Chair
  • An update on Carers Engagement and Support Plans Update
  • Translation of Carers Information
  • Addressing the issues that matter to Carers

Next was Ana’ who helps with the Southwark mental health carers forum, she presented on her involvement at the Patient and Carer’s involvement group. It is vital carers can attend the forum and learn about how empowered carers can be if they learn from involved carers at the trust.

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We then discussed the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy patient engagement event held on the 11th September. Basically NHS Southwark Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Southwark Council aim to improve mental health and wellbeing across the borough and have now developed a draft Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. They held an event to engage the public, patients and carers.

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We got some views from the carers who attend that event and they felt it was very good that we were heard, but felt the scenario’s presented bared little resemblance to their current situations and also felt that lack of money was behind the draft where the community was asked to do more for less.

As a forum, we wish for further engagement from Southwark CCG as we seek to find common themes among mental health carers.

Next up for discussion was the carer’s assessment meeting feedback. There is a feeling that not enough carers are being assessed and the process is too vague when it comes to who is responsible for doing the assessments. Plus there is no idea on the quality control when it comes to carers assessment in the borough of Southwark.

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Even if the outcome of an assessment does not rely on fiancial support, there should be docmentation on carer needs and carer engagement.