As I walked into the training I immediately noticed the Carers Trust team wearing badges with a simple quote “Let me know if you look after someone”. Immediately that caught my eye and this was the theme for the training delivered by Carers First last night to a few pharmacy teams. Ken, from Carers First, did an excellent job explaining ‘carer awareness’ to the pharmacy teams.
Carers Trust & CPPE Training Portfolio
What exactly is a carer? And how does pharmacy play a role?
Well, simply, if you support a family member or friend with any tasks such as paying bills, emotional support, shopping, gardening, doctors visits, washing & dressing, transport, cooking cleaning and help with medicines; with all this being unpaid support … then you are a carer. What I didn’t put into context was the amount of money the NHS save because of carers. I feel they are the hidden health champions. It’s time we supported them.
Where does pharmacy come into all this? That was simple to see at the training. As Ken delivered his training, highlighting the facts such as there are 7 million carers in the UK and on average each pharmacy will be visited by 13-14 carers in a day. The pharmacy teams, at the training, soon lit up and shared many clients that they see in the carers role. Dual carer-ship, where two people rely on each others strengths to get on in life. The engagement and enthusiasm from the teams were very encouraging, and certainly pointed out that pharmacy was ‘the place’ to initiate support to carers.
The pharmacy teams could see the strain and overwhelming stresses that carers are put under constantly. The impact of caring on their relationships, work, finances and health were enormous. We all empathised at this stage and were fully engaged to help in pharmacy.
Personally I was shocked by the financial impacts to society by carers. The value of care provided by carers in England is estimated to be well over £96 billion per year. There is no doubt that this group needs support to keep this care up.
So what better way than recruiting carers we engage with 13-14 times in a day to Carers Frist, using a simple referral form.
Why? Well, Carers Frist support carers with a lot of issues, ranging from general information & advice, emotional support, benefit advice, breaks from caring and training & education.
Also, by our pharmacy teams introducing the services and skills we have in pharmacy, we are not just supporting their care, but, we are building on the trust and relationship with our communities, towards pharmacy.
What we do everyday could simplify life for carers. These include:
- Engaging and listening
- Guidance on compliance aids and assessments for monitored dosage systems
- Prescription collection and delivery services
- Stocking support products
- Services, such as, Stop Smoking Service, NHS Health Checks, Weight Management, Healthy Eating … and much more
By looking after carers, we in turn, are looking after the ones they care for. This isn’t really a choice, but a duty for pharmacy.
You can view the training slides by clicking here.
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