Publications:
New Approaches to Supporting Carers’ Health and Well-being
Evidence from the National Carers’ Strategy Demonstrator Sites programme
06 December 2011
CIRCLE’s latest report, New Approaches to Supporting Carers’ Health and Well-being: Evidence from the National Carers’ Strategy Demonstrator Sites programme, highlights many ideas that work in helping carers to stay well and healthy or to get a short break or a chance to meet their own needs, explaining how and why these ideas can work. The study showed, for example, that for carers struggling to make ends meet, small investments in gym memberships, laptops or short holidays could make a real difference – yet cost a fraction of what would need to be spent if their care breaks down or cannot be sustained.
Other worthwhile innovations included special health and well-being checks to pick up carers’ physical or mental health problems – spotting many conditions, including diabetes, depression and cancer, which would otherwise be left undiagnosed, as carers often put their own needs second to those of others.
Another key finding was that when GPs or hospitals work together with social services and voluntary agencies in their area, support for carers can really improve – yet the better support carers receive through these integrated partnerships costs comparatively little.
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