In order to understand the way COVID-19 is transmitted in communities and reduce its spread, community testing for Coronavirus is available for all Coventry residents, for anyone who is not showing symptoms of the virus. You can also collect free home testing kits from a local pharmacy or a community testing site.

The aim of testing people who do not have COVID-19 symptoms is to protect those most at risk, using rapid testing to speed up the process.

Testing sites across the city include:

• Coventry Transport Museum
• Indian Community Centre, Cross Road, Foleshill
• Moat House Leisure and Neighbourhood Centre, Winston Avenue 
• AT7 Centre, Bell Green Road
• Alan Higgs Centre, Allard Way
• Xcel Centre, Mitchell Avenue
• Hagard Centre, Remembrance Road

No need to book. Just turn up. Results back in less than an hour.

Available: Monday to Friday: 8am - 6:30pm or Saturday and Sunday: 10am - 3pm

Whether you’re providing essential services or just want peace of mind, we would encourage you to get tested regularly to help reduce the spread of the virus in the city.

By taking the test you can make sure you are not passing the virus on to colleagues, members of the public or loved ones. Visit our website for more information.

#GetTestedCoventry

'Care We Share' is a revolutionary portal that allows carers to coordinate care, share caring responsibilities and obtain support from their network. Through our easy to use one-stop portal users can:

• Manage care slots with their family and friends ensuring their loved ones have care 24/7 and that they have peace of mind that they are being cared for.
• Manage medical and hospital appointments.
• Arrange leisure activities.
• Communicate with their network providing updates on care activity.
• Save time by updating one simple shared portal rather than making multiple calls, sending text messages or utilising social media channels to update family and friends.
• Help carers to look after their own physical and mental health.
• Positively support family and relationships.

Free pilot

As part of our digital adoption pilot study,' Care We Share' is appealing to carers to sign up for our free three month trial to utilise our care portal. Carers must have use of a laptop, tablet or PC with internet access and be willing to use the portal for a minimum of once per week over the three month period. Free training will be given and participants will be required to report back on its usability and their user experience. As a thank you, participants accepted onto the pilot will receive a £25.00 Amazon voucher on commencement plus a £25.00 Amazon voucher on completion of the trial.

Email Carers Trust to find out more.

Supporting someone with dementia can involve experiencing changes in the person’s abilities and behaviour that can be difficult to understand and cope with. The emotional impact of this can be huge – leading to feelings of sadness, frustration and helplessness amongst others. Virtual Carers Peer Support group is there for carers to have a safe and supportive space to discuss what’s happening and how they feel. Often there will be someone there who has either faced similar issues and offer some suggestions – but always a listening ear.

This month’s group included a conversation about changes for someone in being able to make a cup of tea and the frustration plus worry that this caused.

If you fancy the challenge, go through every thought and action needed to make a cuppa (we reckon if you get to over 37 – you’re pretty much there!) and then imagine just one step being missed out because someone’s sequencing ability has been affected by the condition.

Suggestions from the group included things like observing to try and work out which bit is missing, writing the sequence down, labelling cupboards, making sure things were in hand and in sight and ‘practicing’ a few times together. Sometimes it is about trying a few different things out to find what may work.

If you are a carer for someone living with dementia and you feel this monthly group would be helpful for you, please contact Corinne. If you are living with or caring for someone with dementia and you would like to speak to a trained Dementia Adviser about any dementia related issue, please call Dementia Connect on 0333 150 3456.

Would you like to take part in an important study of online singing for dementia? The research, funded by the Alzheimer’s Society, is open to people with dementia who can join with their carers until 31 May. Participants enjoy 10 free online singing sessions, as well as providing data for research purposes over the phone. Candidates can live anywhere in England, and they need to be able to use Zoom.

For more information please email or call 07971 007345.

As we ease out of lockdown, we would like to offer you some face to face Support Group meetings for the African and Caribbean Carer Support Group. Starting with an outdoor session on Thursday 10 June 2021.

Before this happens we would like to know how many Carers would be interested in meeting outdoors’s e.g. at a Park for a Picnic or at a Café for a hot/cold drink instead of having a virtual session. Planning in advance gives us time to plan for a safe meeting because your health is our priority.

Our next meeting will be Thursday 13 May 2021 at 11am to 12.30pm on Zoom.

Join Zoom Meeting using Meeting ID: 829 6223 4427 Passcode: 453723 One tap mobile

The meeting will be about transitioning out of lockdown, understanding the rules and restrictions within the ‘Roadmap out of lockdown’ and answering any questions you may have about going outdoors. If needed we can also deliver some infection control packs to you. If interested please call me, Theoma on 07936 945152 or email Lorna so we can plan appropriately under the COVID-19 health measures.

We look forward to your responses.

Kooth is a safe, free and confidential way for young people to access emotional wellbeing and early intervention mental health support.  The service is now live and is available to all young people across Coventry aged 11-25 years and is being jointly funded by the City Council and Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Kooth.com is an award winning and innovative online mental health and wellbeing support service, accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), which will support and complement the existing offer operated by Rise - a family of NHS-led services providing emotional wellbeing & mental health services for young people across the county. Rise already provide a well-established 24/7 telephone service providing crisis support to young people across Coventry. Kooth delivers digital self-help resources and online counselling to further extend the local offer.

Fully trained and qualified counsellors and emotional wellbeing practitioners are available from midday to 10pm, and from 6pm to 10pm at weekends, 365 days a year to provide a much needed out-of-hours service for emotional support in an accessible way. Sessions can be booked in advance or they can drop in for one-to-one instant text-based chats.

The service also encourages peer to peer support via moderated discussion forums, and self-help through reading or submitting content. Children and young people have 24/7 access to magazines with wellbeing articles, personal experiences and tips from young people and the Kooth team.  

Would you like someone to talk too? Learn about the impact of anxiety and low mood as well as other topics? 

This is an opportunity to meet other people and gain support. Please join our women only wellbeing sessions. The next one is 10 May 1.30pm - 2.30pm.

Please email or call 

Tirth 07538 093004

Jo  07950 813581

Lucia  07950 800503 

They look forward to welcoming you. 

• The Jobcentres have re opened as business as usual under Covid safe conditions from 12 April 2021. This means Face to Face appointments will be now taking place.
• The £20 uplift additional weekly allowance on the standard rates for Universal Credit will continue for a further 6 months up to September 2021.
• Advances of Universal Credit applied after 12 April can be paid back over a period of 24 months.  
• We now have eight Disability Employment Advisers in Coventry JCP as part of the Governments support to help customers with disabilities moving closer to work.

As part of the Keeping Coventry Warm scheme, we can help you register to be on the list for the Priority Services Register (PSR). This is a FREE service provided by energy supply and network operators.  If you:

• Struggle to read your meters
• Rely on electricity for a stair lift or oxygen
• Have Communication issues
• Are on any benefit

You can benefit from registering for the PSR so you can receive large print fuel bills, regular meter readings taken by the supplier and receive assistance during power cuts from The Red Cross to provide assistance when needed.

For further information please call Act on Energy on the free phone Advice Line: 0800 988 2881

Care Companion is an online resource intended to provide personalised support to anyone with a caring role in Coventry and Warwickshire. It provides access to a range of informative resources and support tools, all completely free. Please visit their website to find out more.

You will be able to create your own profile to ensure resources are relevant to your needs and those of the person you care for.

The team at Warwick Medical School are currently evaluating Care Companion via a research study funded by the NHS. The study aims to evaluate the impact of Care Companion on carers to help improve its design and content. If you are interested in hearing more about the study and potentially participating you can find out more on the website without any obligation.

We welcome carers views and look forward to hearing from carers and people who have disseminated information about Care Companion. Any questions please contact Theresa Day.