• News Update from Caring with Confidence June 2010
• News Update from Caring with Confidence June 2010
• Carers Lose Out Due to Barriers in Accessing Development Opportunities
• Carers Lose Out Due to Barriers in Accessing Development Opportunities
• Carers Lose Out Due to Barriers in Accessing Development Opportunities

Supporting this Thursday’s (25 February) Dignity Action Day, Caring with Confidence, who provide free learning and development support sessions for unpaid carers, is highlighting the importance of treating those in care with dignity and as individuals - and extending this treatment to those people’s carers.

Dignity Action Day aims to ensure people in care – whether in hospital, at a surgery or at home – are treated by health and social care professionals as individuals, are given choice, control and a sense of purpose in their daily lives and are provided with stimulating activities. It asks health and social care workers to take action in their place of work to promote dignity.

Supporting this call, Caring with Confidence is urging that this consideration extends to carers – the people who are very often the main point of contact for health and social care professionals involved with their loved one’s care.

Graham Brindley, Caring with Confidence Project Director, said: “Many carers are providing 24/7 care for partners, friends or relatives. They are often the ones who have direct contact with the health and social care professionals looking after their loved one.

“They need to be able to have the same level of consideration from health and social care professionals as the person they care for and in turn, they should reciprocate this with the professional. It’s important that the relationship between professionals, the person receiving care and the carer is a good one for the benefit of all involved.”

As part of its free programme for unpaid carers in England, Caring with Confidence runs a session called Caring and Communicating. The focus of this session is to help carers communicate effectively with health, social care and other service providers involved in the care of their loved one in order they can access what they need for the person they care for.
 
The Caring and Communicating session along with other sessions in the programme is available to unpaid carers aged over 18 in England. The programme, funded by the Department of Health, is delivered across the country through a network of Provider organisations including carers centres, PCTs, local authorities and charities.

Since Caring with Confidence began delivering the programme in May 2009, more than 1,200 carers have attended the Caring and Communicating session alone. Over 11,100 carer places on sessions across the programme as a whole have been attended by carers.

Topics covered in the other sessions include carers own health and wellbeing, coping effectively, accessing relevant benefits and resources, emergencies at home and taking time out for themselves. 

For further information about Caring with Confidence or to find details of local Providers, visit www.caringwithconfidence.net or call 0800 849 2349, or to find out more about Dignity in Action Day visit, www.dhcarenetworks.org.uk/dignityincare/DAD/.

-ENDS-

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Caring with Confidence is a programme of free, flexible support sessions enabling carers who look after a friend or relative the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge to help improve their own lives and that of the person they care for.

The programme is funded by the Department of Health and is a part of the Government’s renewed National Carers Strategy and the ‘New Deal for Carers’ which aims to improve support for carers aged 18 and over in England.
Caring with Confidence:
 
·         helps carers build on their strengths
·         gives useful information about looking after someone
·         helps carers decide what positive changes they could make in their caring role.

Carers can choose how they access Caring with Confidence, either by attending face-to-face group sessions, completing self-study workbooks, accessing online sessions or a combination of all three.
For further information, visit www.caringwithconfidence.net.

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