Carers Recognition is supported by the NHS in Surrey
Hello and Welcome to this site. My name is Pennie Quaile-Pearce I am the Carers Recognition Worker(CRW) for Guildford and Waverley. I am a resource for GP's surgeries to help them indentify carers within their own practices. It may be helpful to define what my remit is, so you know what is meant by CRW
Unite Primary Care teams in developing greater Carers Awareness
Encouraging GP practices to register carers , so that they can access the services that they really need
Support GP practices in developing carer awareness and more sensitive services for carers
Work alongside and be a resource for GP Practices, District Nurses, Community Therapists, Hospital staff, Carer Support Staff, Dentists and Complementary Therapists
Help to raise awareness of carers issues and help carers identify themselves in the community by using national and local media channels
Act as example of Good Practice
Carer's Support
There are 2 local Carers Support Teams in Guildford and Waverley (based in Farnham) who cover the South West of Surrey. These teams are experts in the field of Carers Support and are an invaluable tool once a carers has been registered with their GP. They are both independent voluntary organisations.
They Provide:
Someone to talk to in confidence who has time to listen
Information on services to support carers in their roles
Information on benefits and help in completing forms
Advocacy and support in obtaining services
Carers newsletter
What we want to achieve
All carers in the community are registered with their GP's
All GP's are aware and use GP's website to access information, guidelines and registration forms
All practice staff know how to code carers notes and what to do with registration forms i.e. fax, email, post to local Carers Support
All practice staff have had Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and training with regards to carers and their issues
All practices have an up to date carers resource file available
Carers information is displayed on notice boards
Carers have access to flexible appointments and health checks
On-going Plan of Action
To offer/arrange with each surgery within South West Surrey the opportunity to hold a annual Carers Awareness Week
Why are we offering to do this
1. Brings focus to the issues of carers in the community
2. Allows surgeries to focus for one week a year on getting up to date with staff training, information and developments
3. Builds good relationship between practice staff and outside agencies
4. Creates a high standard of care and good practice for carers across South West Surrey
What we will do or supply
1. Place Carers Support information boards in your practice for the week
2. Pennie will be available to you to give talks and training for all you staff ( Short talks of 15-20 minutes on the 'How to' and 'Why do' of carer's recognition) These talks can be repeated over several days and at different times to capture part-time staff and shift patterns
3. Your local Carers Support Team offer to run a 2 hour carers surgery/clinic where carers can come and meet them informally to ask questions, get advice, get help with different issues
4. Supply a template letter for inviting carers to carers surgery/clinic
5. Liaise with carers lead or practice manager to ensure all runs smoothly
6. Collect and process all registration forms at the end of week, once registered and notes coded by staff
7. Liaise with local voluntary organisations to promote the week in your local community
8. Create database of Carers Leads and send a short bi-monthly newsletter to keep them informed of changes and events
9. Celebrate success of week with practice staff
10. Supply on-going support, help and guidance as well as up-dated information and training on request
What we would like you to do or supply
1. Pick a week of the year that is convenient and suitable for your surgery
2. Supply space for carers surgery/clinic if available (if space is not available in the practice we will organise to use another local venue or space)
3. Send out invitation letters to registered carers for carers surgery/clinic
4. Let Pennie know what days of week and times of day you would like talks to be given to practice staff, nurses, community nurses etc... to cover all staff needs and shifts
5. Identify a Carers Lead (if appropiate) and let Pennie have their name, email address and contact number, so it can be added to the Carers Lead database.
