Derbyshire Carers Association are offering a new support service to connect carers to vital support services within their community.  Types of help available include:

• Help/advice to source practical help
• Direct links with Social Care
• Advice and links to get financial and legal help
• Help to make an emergency plan
• Links to befriending support
• Specialist advice

Please note that during the current situation Derbyshire Carers Association will not be offering face to face appointment or drop ins at any of their offices.  

Also in order to protect Carers, their cared for and families, Derbyshire Carers Association have also suspended all support group meetings and arranged activities until further notice. Instead they are currently running Support and Cuppa & Chat groups online. If you are interested in joining in with any of their ‘Zoom’ Support groups please contact them by email info@derbyshirecarers.co.uk or tel: 01773 833833.

Find out more about how Derbyshire Carers Association are supporting carers during the pandemic on their website.

Do you care for someone who lives in Derby City?

If you care for someone who lives in Derby City you can get support from the Universal Services for Carers service provided by Citizen's Advice Mid Mercia.

Derbyshire County Council and local partners are co-ordinating a massive community response across the county to make sure vulnerable residents are supported through the coronavirus outbreak.

Residents who could be helped by the Community Response Unit include those who are self-isolating because they, or a member of their household, is at risk from coronavirus. Support will be offered to residents struggling to meet their basic needs because of financial, social and health restrictions – including people who are shielding, those with some underlying health conditions and those aged 70 or over

The Community Response Unit will help those in need by delivering services such as:

• food shopping and delivery
• checking up on people who are isolated with a phone call or online help to prevent loneliness and check whether there is anything they need
• collecting and delivering prescriptions

Find out more on the Derbyshire County Council website.

Life is for Living is a seven minute film produced pre-lockdown by the arts group People Express in partnership with Amber Valley Dementia Peer Support Group. It was funded by Public Health through the Health and Wellbeing Partnership in Amber Valley and features people with dementia and their carers talking about their experiences of living with dementia.

The main aim of the project is to enable the group to ‘gift’ their personal stories, experiences, learning, passions and belief that ‘life is for living’ to inform and support other people affected by dementia; including Carers, people newly diagnosed and those pre-diagnosis.

You can view the video on YouTube.

SCIE have designed a series of video–based resources to help carers look after someone safely at home.

They are intended to help you care for people in any situation, and will be particularly useful if you are supporting someone during the Covid-19 crisis.

The videos cover:

• How to help manage certain conditions
• Providing everyday support for any person you care for

The videos are arranged in the following categories:

Staying healthy at home – videos focusing on maintaining the health of the person you are looking after, including nutrition and diet, preventing pressure ulcers, infection and falls.

Dementia – specific advice for people caring for someone living with dementia, such as spotting unusual behaviour, dealing with challenging behaviour, active listening, environment.

If you look after someone with dementia you can also get advice from the Derbyshire Dementia Support Service on tel: 01332 208845

Everyday support – videos providing advice and information about common caring scenarios.  Covering constipation, mouth care, mental health first aid, patient transport services, compression stockings, and catheter care.

If you have a concern – helpful advice for people caring at home during more challenging moments – when to use 111 and 999, delirium (sudden confusion), stroke

Emergency planning – support to help you care for family and friends and prepare for an emergency situation – 111 and 999, choking, airway and breathing and circulation (ABC), CPR, critical care.

Please also see our emergency planning top tips blog and information on Carers Emergency Cards.

More caring safely at home resources – SCIE has a range of useful resources that may help those caring for a family member at home – dementia resources hub, dementia e-learning, infection control e-learning.

As a carer it is a good idea to put plans in place in case you are suddenly unable to provide care to the person you look after.

A crisis or emergency situation refers to something that couldn't be planned for and could include:

• an unplanned admission to hospital
• a family emergency such as a bereavement
• your employment being at immediate risk due to your caring role.

Having plans in place will help other people look after the person you care for while you are unable to. It will also mean you don't have to worry so much and can concentrate on yourself for a little while.

If you haven't got a plan in place and need help now, please see our carer in crisis page.

Carers Emergency card

The Derbyshire Carers Emergency Card Scheme is a way of letting emergency services know you are a carer and that someone relies on you for support. It also allows you to have details of contingency plans held on the Derbyshire Adult Care database so they can be accessed by professionals who may be helping you in a crisis. It's important that the contingency plans you make include enough details and information. Our blog post about making an emergency plan has lots of hints and tips on what to include. 

A new Autism Information service has launched in Derbyshire.

It will support adults living with Autism Spectrum Condition, their families and carers, and professionals wanting to learn more about Autism.

The service includes a help-line, website full of useful information and drop in sessions.

For more information have a look at their website: www.autisminformationservice.org.uk

This survey is from the National Centre for
Mental Health or NCMH.

They want to know how the coronavirus emergency is affecting the lives of people with a learning disability or autism.

You can take part in the survey here