Cambridgeshire County Council Reablement Service has been awarded Caring Together’s Carer Friendly Tick Award – Communities, in recognition of their work to identify and support carers.
And their team members have spoken of why they believe it is so important to identify and support carers. Their comments have included:
“Carers often say to me ‘I feel like I am the only person in the world in this situation’. Having someone to listen to them and support and signpost can help carers reconnect with the rest of the world.”
“We can give an opportunity for a carer to be listened to and receive validation for what they do – to be recognised and thanked for what they do.”
“It is about the wellbeing of the carer. If a carer is well and supported they can be supportive in different ways and might want step back into their previous role as a son, daughter, a friend.”
“We advise and often just knowing there is support there if you need can take the pressure off. Like ‘What if?’ plans so a carer knows what will happen if they need help.”
“As an informal carer you want to know you are doing the right thing and we can give guidance, reassurance, confidence building.”
“Families are experts we can assure them they are doing a fantastic job but that there is help for them.”
Andy McGowan, head of carer services at Caring Together, said, “With three in five of us likely to be a carer at some stage in our lives we are seeing more and more organisations in our communities recognising the importance of identifying and supporting carers of all ages.
“We are very pleased to see the reablement service now having their work to identify and support young carers recognised by the Carer Friendly Tick Award. We want to congratulate them on this and to thank them for the work that they are doing which makes a real difference to carers.”
Caring Together works to help raise the awareness of carers awareness in the community with health, social care and education professionals, and employers.
The Carer Friendly Tick Award was originally developed for education by young carers from Caring Together’s Norfolk Young Carers Forum (NYCF) project. The success of this meant the awards have been rolled out across Norfolk, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire to now include community, health and employer awards.
These recognise the valuable work done in identifying and supporting carers carried out by each type of organisations.
For more information about the Carer Friendly Tick Award please visit caringtogether.org/carer-friendly-tick or email [email protected]
