Most of us will, at some point, become a carer. It may just be a question of keeping an eye on an elderly neighbour or helping a friend with housework, but for some it will mean caring full-time for a partner or an ageing parent.
Caring can be rewarding and fulfilling – it also saves the country millions in social care costs – but it can also be emotionally and physically draining. And that’s where a new service called Carers Count, launched last month by Kirklees Council, hopes to make a difference.
Although it’s currently estimated that Kirklees has 40,000 unpaid carers, the suspicion is that many more people are supporting vulnerable family members and friends without recognition.
Carers Count manager Heather Ellis says: “This figure is probably an under-estimate as there are people who don’t think of themselves as carers. And these people need support.”
The aim of Carers Count is to provide a simple, one-stop advice and information ‘shop’ to ease the lives of carers and safeguard their well-being. It will organise support groups, training sessions and offer financial advice. There is also an advocacy service to help ‘fight the corner’ of those in difficulties.
Carers Count replaces the Carers Gateway, which began as an organisation for carers, but according to Heather became “watered- down” and was not well publicised.
“It dealt with other vulnerable groups of people as well and the focus wasn’t just on carers,” she explained.
“We spoke to carers and they said they wanted their own service.”
Carers Count is run by a consortium of four voluntary sector bodies – Clover Leaf Advocacy, Voluntary Action Kirklees, Age UK and Mencap.
The service has four information and advice workers, Katie Dixon, Stephanie Walker, Sue Purdie and Nicola Moffat, who offer home visits, telephone support, drop-in sessions and appointments at their office in Upperhead Row, Huddersfield.
They will assist with enquiries about anything from where to get a safety handrail and how to access respite care to difficulties with benefits or housing.
“We want to re-engage with the caring community,” says Heather, “and get some support groups going so that carers can meet. We’ll be running courses on things like first aid and handling and crafts. We’ll have speakers from organisations such as the Stroke Association.
“Being a carer can be quite isolating and their time is precious so we want to help where we can.
“We can’t provide every service ourselves, but what we can do is put them in touch with services they need. We can signpost them or refer them on. We know what’s available. It would take a carer so much longer to ring around the different agencies themselves.”
Clr Molly Watson, Kirklees Council cabinet member for Health, Wellbeing and Communities, believes help for carers is essential.
She said: “Having been a carer myself I know that the strain can affect one’s own health and I feel it’s important to give more to those who deserve more – it’s vital they have support of their own.
“Unpaid carers bring many benefits to Kirklees, providing countless hours of care and support to families and loved ones who have disabilities. They help give people with disabilities the best quality of life they can.”
She also hopes that the carers themselves will play a role in developing Carers Count.
“Carers Count will help to keep carers healthy and well, which means they can keep helping the people they care for.
“Carers need not struggle or feel like they are on their own.”
For Mary Thackray, 73, and her husband David, 71, from Netherton, Carers Count has already made a difference to their lives.
Mary heard about the new service while attending a support and therapy session at the Kirkwood Hospice.
At the time she wanted to make an overnight trip to London, but was concerned that there was no-one to take care of David, who is disabled with multiple health problems.
David, however, was resistant to the idea of anyone staying in the house with him.
In the end, advice worker Katie Dixon, arranged for David – who has diabetes, stage three heart failure, vascular problems in his legs and a pacemaker – to have a Carephone bracelet with a falls detector.
“It was a compromise and it was good that they could sort it out so quickly,” said Mary, who was able to take her short break.
David, a former furniture maker, has been disabled since having a quadruple heart by-pass operation 20 years ago, although his health problems have worsened over the past four years.
Mary, who was a care assistant at an old people’s home in Netherton, looks after David with the help of the district nursing service. Nurses call three times a week.
Because of David’s mobility difficulties he can only go out when their son, who lives locally, visits. He is mostly housebound. Mary has little time to call her own and yet looks after one of her grand-children after school and cares for a friend’s young son while his mother attends college twice a week.
Until recently she rarely left David’s side, but through Carers Count she now gets help from the Crossroads charity, which provides weekly respite care in their own home so that she can go out.
“A volunteer comes to the house and sits and chats with David while I go out,” she explained.
David appreciates the help from Carers Count and says: “I think Mary is in a worse position than me. Her work starts when I wake up in the morning and doesn’t stop until I go to bed at night. And she’s always volunteering for things!”
To contact Carers Count call 0300 0120231.
The national organisation Carers UK is conducting a survey into how caring for someone with dementia affects employment. To take part check out www.carersuk.org/dementiasurvey
Carers Count is hosting two open days:
Wednesday November 27, from 10am to 3pm, at the Customer Service Centre in Dewsbury; and Friday, November 29, from 10am to 3pm, at Brian Jackson House in Huddersfield.
The events, which include a free lunch, will be centred around information and advice for carers and accessing technology.
Millions of pounds of carers’ benefits go unclaimed every year.
The new Carers Count service can advise on entitlements and how to claim.
Anyone who spends 35 hours or more a week caring for someone and is over the age of 16, not in full time education or earning more than £100 may be eligible for the Carer’s Allowance. Those on benefits already may be able to claim the Carer Premium.
There are also Carer’s Credits, which are National Insurance credits towards a pension that can be paid if someone is not making contributions themselves because of a caring role.
Carers may be able to access help from the Motability scheme; blue badge parking, a disabled person’s railcard and free cinema tickets.
An increasing number of carers are elderly or vulnerable themselves.
Because of this a ‘one-stop shop’ offering advice and information is, as one 62-year-old carer put it, “invaluable”.
Although she declined to be named, the Huddersfield resident, who cares for her 69-year-old husband, who has Alzheimer’s, said she wanted to encourage others to seek help from Carers Count.
She explained: “I rang them up for one piece of advice and found they were invaluable in giving us other information.
“I didn’t realise he was entitled to an attendance allowance and they got the forms and helped us fill them out.
“To have somebody who can help you with the bureaucracy is wonderful. They have got information at their fingertips.
“The one thing that was desperately needed was a joined-up approach.
“This organisation can steer you in the right direction with one phone call, instead of you having to dig around for things.
“Life as a carer is not easy. I have to be vigilant all the time and sometimes my husband is awake for hours at night. Fatigue has become a constant companion.
“Carers Count is exactly what’s needed. I have got a feeling that it is going to be at the centre of what people need.”
There are almost seven million carers in the UK – that is one in ten people – and the numbers are rising. Every year more than 2.3 million adults become carers and a similar number stop being carers. Three in five people will be carers at some point in their lives.
Following a survey in 2010, the BBC estimated that there are 700,000 young carers in the UK. Young adult carers aged between 16 and 18 years are twice as likely to be not in education, employment, or training (NEET). In England and Wales, just under one million (950,000) people over 65 are carers.
