1 Carer’s Newsletter April - September 2019 Volunteer with us - contact our Volunteer Coordinator on 0121 788 1143 What a difference 6 months can make! Since our last newsletter Carers Trust Solihull won the ‘All Age Carers Support’ contract from SMBC and will be continuing to support the carers of Solihull! We are now part of the Community Wellbeing Service along with several other third sector charities and projects. We will continue to work cooperatively to improve the services to Solihull residents. Through these last few months our staff, volunteers and trustees have worked to improve and develop our services. This is to ensure that when the new services start on April 1 st there will be minimum disruption, ensuring continuity for the services you say work and meet your needs, as well as new services that add to what we offer. Behind the scenes we are investing in improving the range of frequency of training we can provide, the quality of our information materials and, after a major overhaul of our website, we want to refresh and improve its core content, making it more accessible and our website truly interactive. We hope you will come to enjoy and value the established and new services we will be able to offer. And be confident your views and constructive criticism would be eagerly welcomed. Brandon Scott-Omenka Chief Executive Officer
12
Embed
Carer’s Newsletter · To find out more Phone: 0121 663 0335 or email [email protected] Find Reputable Trader If you’re looking for a builder, roofer, landscaper, electrician
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
1
Carer’s
Newsletter April - September 2019
Volunteer with us - contact our Volunteer Coordinator on 0121 788 1143
What a difference 6 months can make!
Since our last newsletter Carers Trust Solihull
won the ‘All Age Carers Support’ contract
from SMBC and will be continuing to support
the carers of Solihull!
We are now part of the Community Wellbeing
Service along with several other third sector
charities and projects. We will continue to
work cooperatively to improve the services to
Solihull residents.
Through these last few months our staff, volunteers and trustees have worked to improve
and develop our services. This is to ensure that when the new services start on April 1st
there will be minimum disruption, ensuring continuity for the services you say work and
meet your needs, as well as new services that add to what we offer. Behind the scenes
we are investing in improving the range of frequency of training we can provide, the
quality of our information materials and, after a major overhaul of our website, we want to
refresh and improve its core content, making it more accessible and our website truly
interactive.
We hope you will come to enjoy and value the established and new services we will be
able to offer. And be confident your views and constructive criticism would be eagerly
welcomed.
Brandon Scott-Omenka
Chief Executive Officer
2
News and updates
Our annual network meeting
On Monday 4th February we held our annual network
meeting at Solihull Council Civic Suite. We were
joined by members of the council, other organisations,
professionals and carers to celebrate our work over
the past year and to look at our plans for the future.
Our CEO Brandon Scott-Omenka lead the meeting
and presented some local statistics on caring. There
are now approximately 26,520 carers in Solihull and
carers registering with the Carers Trust Solihull rose
by 24.8% between 2017-2018. Over the year we have
delivered 22 training sessions, 14 respite days, 6
relaxation sessions and 34 carers support groups for
adult carers.
Brandon also shared the vision for the future of Carers Trust Solihull with plans to grow
access to social and web-based information along with personal and practical support for
safe and compassionate caring. We also said goodbye to our Chair Trustees Jane Cove
who has chaired the trust for 5 years and her dedication and contribution to Carers Trust
Solihull has helped to make it what it is today. We are happy to welcome Carole Whittock
as our new Chair of Trustees.
Social Media
Over the next six month we aim for our
service to be more interactive and we
are working on our digital strategy.
Through this we hope to give carers
access to more support. To make sure
you don’t miss out on what's coming
make sure you are following us on…
@solihullcarerstrust
@carerssolihull
@carerstrustsolihull
Isn’t it time you had
your say?
Would you like to share your views regarding
initiatives, funding, plans and services that
make a difference to carers in Solihull? The
Carers Partnership Board is looking to recruit
carers to become full members. It meets in
the afternoon once every two months and
travel expenses to this meeting can be paid.
We really want to hear you views.
If you are interested in or would like to find
out more, please contact Michelle Stoddard
on 0121 788 1143.
3
Our Dementia Friends Champion, Susan
Prince runs regular dementia workshops
throughout the year.
At our last Dementia workshop delivered
in November, attendees learnt some new
coping strategies and how to change their
thinking and approach around caring for
someone with Dementia. The carers that
attended the session fed back to us that
the session “helped me to understand the
Our next Dementia Workshop is on May 9th
check our events diary for more
information and other courses that may support you in your caring role.
What is a Twiddle Muff?
A twiddle muff is for the hands and decorated with
items of interest to that person or items that have
colour or texture that provides sensory stimulation.
They also provide warmth for the hands.
Twiddle muffs can be invaluable for dementia
patients as the decorations (buttons, beads, zips
and ribbons) give them something to do with their
hands and can help calm restless impulses.
Placing of a multi colored blanket can help
someone with dementia easily locate their chair or
bed when there is little to define it as theirs.
We still have some Twiddle Muffs and blankets available to carers who are supporting
someone with dementia. If you would like one please contact us on 0121 788 1143.
We were fortunate to have some twiddle muffs and multi coloured blankets donated to
us from the Mothers' Union in the Diocese of Birmingham and also from Knowles
Mothers’ Union “Knit Wits”.
Dementia Workshops for Carers
main types of dementia” and “it showed me different approaches to challenging situations”.
4
Parent Carers Assessments
A Parent Carers Assessment is for carers aged
18+ who provide care to a child with a disability or
additional need for whom they have parental
responsibility. By having an assessment you will
be given the chance to discuss your caring role
and the impact this has on your physical, mental
and emotional wellbeing. The assessment will
focus on support for yourself and is not a means
of accessing support for your child. Don’t be put
off by the word ‘assessment’, it is not a test about
how good you are at caring, it is to work out what can be done to make life easier for
you. We have completed 130 assessments since the project started in April last year,
and have carried out 78 reviews, which has allowed us to measure the impact of the
assessments on parents wellbeing. So far we have found that 90% of parents feel the
support plan gives them enough information to make change, with the most significant
improvements being in ‘how I feel’ and ‘time for myself and family’.
If you would like to find out more about parent carer assessments
call 0121 788 1143
The assessment is for the parent carer only and not a means of accessing support for
the child
A formal diagnosis for the child is required
Contingency Planning
Over the past 6 months we have delivered 4 Contingency Planning Workshops for
carers and carried out 16 one to one contingency plans in carers homes.
As a carer it is important to know that if an emergency happens, replacement care will
be sorted out speedily and efficiently. Through our Contingency Planning Workshops we
help carers to think about different types of emergencies and create an emergency plan.
We look at what resources are available and tools that can help in a crisis. Having a plan
in place will help to ease your worries if you are not able to care for the person you look
after at any point in the future.
You can find the dates of future workshops in our events diary or if you would like a one
to one meeting to discuss a contingency plan, call us on 0121 788 1143.
5
GP Health Liaison Project
Surgeries have received a carers pathway and regular Carers information. The
Health Liaison service has attended flu vaccination sessions, talked with Patient
Participation Groups, visited GP and hospital carer’s coffee afternoons and worked at
many health events. Carers Week has been celebrated with surgeries and Carers
Questions sessions are being held in a variety of surgery receptions.
The Health/GP coordinator also works closely with health professionals at UHB
(University Hospitals Birmingham) to shape Carers Support on the wards.
There are some great GP practice initiatives taking place, some examples are,
Bosworth Drive Surgery staff work directly with us to improve services for carers.
Northbrook Surgery introducing a carers coffee afternoon and collecting over 100
Easter Eggs for Young Carers. Hobs Moat Surgery has been rated as outstanding
within the “caring” category of their CQC inspection and includes reference to our
monthly Carers Questions sessions. The G.P.S Group have welcomed our services
with open arms throughout their surgeries and Bernays and Whitehouse Medical
partnership are holding their second Under One Roof event (see our events diary)
bringing together services that benefit carers and service users alike.
With heavy demands placed on Carers, health professionals and support agencies it
is evident that working together can help improve experiences for Carers in health
settings.
Ask your GP or receptionist to include your details on the surgeries carers register to
alert them of your caring responsibilities. Any queries when registering let us know
and we can help.
If you have Carer experiences in health services good or not so good, contact Linda
Bonfield the GP/Health Coordinator with your views. We can use your feedback
Solihull Council, working with Dodd Group and Act on Energy,
is starting a new project offering some residents free gas
central heating.
The project will focus on the installation of first time gas
central heating to owner occupiers and Solihull Community
Housing tenants where gas is not the primary heating source.
Where electricity is used for heating we will be replacing this with gas condensing boilers with the aim of:
improving energy efficiency, and
reducing the running costs for residents
The project will support households from fuel poor areas or those on low incomes. The aim is to help improve the health of local people which could be made worse by living in a cold home. We will be providing support for up to 125 owner-occupied households using external funding from National Grid. With a further 125 for Solihull Community Housing tenants
For further information about this project, or to register your interest, either: email Act on Energy at [email protected] or
call the Freephone number 0800 988 2881
The Better Living Centre in Solihull works to provide help and support to elderly adults,
young disabled adults and carers. It gives free and impartial advice from trained staff
and demonstrations of useful gadgets, adaptations and equipment.
The Centre is located at
The Better Living Centre
Unit 4, Elmdon Trading Estate, Bickenhill Lane,
Solihull B37 7HE
We showcase the equipment available on tours of the Better Living Centre every
Wednesday and Friday at 9.00am, 11.00am and 1.00pm. Places on the tour must be