Welcome to this month's bulletin. June is an important month as it is the time when we celebrate unpaid Carers and highlight the amazing, yet challenging and stressful work you provide to your loved ones and those who are dear to you. 

We understand the word "carer" can bring it's own challenges but we would like to reach as many people as possible to provide them with support, advice and information. So, if you know someone who is caring and needs some support please share this bulletin with them. With this in mind, we have also included information about how to access a carers assessment. 

Carers Trust Heart of England are offering a range of face to face and virtual sessions ranging from aromatherapy and gardening to laughter yoga and an afternoon tea throughout Carers week. They also continue to provide their regular monthly sessions for carers to participate in and meet other carers.

This month also celebrates Learning Disability Week from 20 to 26 June, this looks at highlighting what life is like for people with a learning disability. The campaign looks at how people are reconnecting with friends and families but also sharing the worry and impact that isolation has had during the pandemic and their thoughts since the restrictions have been lifted. For more information on how you can take part please take at look at the Mencap website. 

You will find information about Change, Grow, Life an organisation who supports people with drug and alcohol issues as well as their carers. There are details about support regarding the cost of living as well as a survey focussing on housing with care that you can take part in. We appreciate there is a lot of information in this months bulletin, but we want to make sure that you are aware of all the support available to you. 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all the ongoing support and care that you are providing each and every day. You are all amazing! Thank you. 

If you care for a family member, friend or neighbour you are entitled to have a carers assessment which will look to see what help you can have to make life more manageable. This assessment will consider how the caring role impacts all aspects of your life including your health and work and will then focus on recommendations. This could range from local support groups, manual handling training to benefit advice and access to leisure facilities. Anyone can have a carers assessment who is looking after another adult under the Care Act 2014. Any adult who has care and support needs can have their own assessment. This must involve any carers and this would be called a combined carers assessment. However, you can also have a separate carers assessment if you feel this is better for you.

To access a carers assessment you can complete a self-assessment, online via the council website or if the cared for person is not known to Adult Social Care you can speak to the Carers Trust Heart of England who can carry out a carers assessment on behalf of Coventry City Council. Please see our website for further information and guidance.

You can contact the Carers Trust on 02476 632972 or you can drop them an email.

Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust (CWPT) is hosting an 'Art Therapy Exhibition' of works created by people accessing the Coventry Community Learning Disability Art Therapy Groups, taking place between 20 -  24 June. There will be other information and exhibits to view from a variety of aspects of the service.

Last month we were very lucky to sponsor the Coventry City match ball giving our YACs the opportunity to meet some of the players and have a tour of the dugouts prior to kick off. They had an amazing time. It was a chance for some of our YACs to step outside their comfort zone, dress up and be treated as VIPs.

“Thank you to YOUR FUTURE for a day I will never forget.”

“This is the first time I have ever experienced a football match in hospitality, the food was an added bonus”

“I can’t believe I have been behind the scenes at CCFC”

As we are now approaching exam season, we are holding tutor led revision sessions for our young adult carers who are taking their GCSEs or A Levels this year. Obviously, a study session wouldn’t be a study session without treats and pizza! Watch this space. 

Congratulations to Noah, one of our young adult carers who was part of a local amateur dramatics production of The Little Mermaid. Your Future took two young adult carers to support Noah and we all enjoyed a trip to the theatre!

Last week our young adult carers we able to have the opportunity to come along to our Go Karting trip, this trip was requested by our young adult carers to promote teamwork and increase confidence. It was fantastic to watch the young adult carers whiz around the track and work as a team against the other drivers.

“Thank you for providing this trip, its great to be listened to and know that we have such a big input to the service”

Lastly, our young adult carers held a stall at the Three Spires Guildhall Funday at Pinley Fields. Our Young adults had a tombola stall and raised £185.75 for Feed the Hungry Coventry’s Ukrainian food bank. We were there to raise awareness of young carers and the other services provided by Carers Trust Heart of England.

Change Grow Live are a drug and alcohol treatment service in Coventry; we support adults with their drug and alcohol issues and we also support their carers, friends and adult family members.  For our carers, friends and family support we provide three types of support at the moment:

1. We can provide direct one to one support at our office in Lamb Street.  The support is with someone who has been in your shoes, dealing with their family members addiction issues.
2. We also provide an online support group every Tuesday evening at 7pm through Zoom, this is also facilitated by the same person.
3. Our family lead also hosts a WhatsApp group you can access.

You can choose to take advantage of any or all of these support systems, whatever works for you to help you manage how you feel about and think about what action you take with the person who you are supporting.

Please just register your details with us and once completed you will be given the link to our evening group instantly, which you are more than welcome to join any time!

Coventry City Council is always looking to improve our care offer and ensure quality provision is available to all our citizens. We are currently seeking feedback from individuals within Housing with Care (HwC) schemes via a short survey to understand what should be included in these services moving forward. Specifically we are looking to understand:

• What is working well?
• What could be improved?
• General impressions of the service.

All feedback is welcome and we greatly appreciate the contribution of individuals taking part. If you or a loved one has experience of living in a housing with care scheme, you can take part in the survey.

On 23 May, a host of different organisations came together at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire to support learning across the hospital about the range of services involved that can support hospital discharge and community support. The event was a drop in session throughout the course of the day and was attended by a range of staff from the hospital all keen to learn more about the services available to support Coventry residents.  

A range of voluntary sector organisations, CWPT, PCNs, Adult Social Care and Carers helped facilitate stalls and information during the day. 

It was an opportunity to see how people facilitating discharge can improve the process for patients and carers.

Are you supporting a family member living with dementia to live at home? Yes? Researchers at The University of Manchester love to hear from you. 

The research team know that being a carer during the pandemic has been very difficult and they want to highlight some of the issues that you may have faced so that improvements can be made to the support that is available to carers and people living with dementia in the future.

Taking part in the research involves filling in a survey that should take no more than 30 - 45 minutes to complete. Access the survey.

If you would prefer a printed paper copy and freepost return envelope, please email Jayne Astbury or 07385 463 137.   

Thank you for your time and for supporting us with this research .

The Big Jubilee Read

Coventry libraries and information service is thrilled to see the books announced for the #BigJubileeRead! 

This national campaign from the Reading Agency, BBCArtsOnline and Arts Council England coincides with Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, celebrating great reads from across the Commonwealth. 

Seventy titles have been chosen by an expert panel that will introduce you to a brilliant selection of authors and books.

Discover the full list on their website 

Come into the library to borrow books from the list or download them from our website 

New Dementia Active sessions

We have just launched two new Dementia Active sessions following the success of our work in Coventry. These are gentle sports and physical activities combined with social opportunities delivered in local sports halls.

The session consists of a variety of activities for participants of all abilities. These include badminton, table tennis, soft archery, indoor bowls, basketball, and football. Plus, we have games that are less physically demanding like giant Jenga, cards and other board games.

The idea is to give men the opportunity to practice their hobbies or learn skills in a safe, friendly environment with plenty of professional support, while giving their carers the opportunity for some respite. Participants are welcome to attend with carers/family members or friends and we encourage them to join in also, which helps create a positive atmosphere at sessions.

DEMENTIA Active is now delivered in Coventry, Warwick and Nuneaton. For more information and to refer, please contact Jack Clemons 

New online drop-in session – starting week commencing 23 May

From Monday 23 May, our Health Manager (Robbie Chandler) will start offering weekly, online, drop-in sessions for men who would like to engage with MENtalk but might not feel confident enough to go to one of our venues.

This worked extremely well during the pandemic for those who needed to be more socially active but were isolated. This is an opportunity for men to meet SBitC without having to attend physically and we hope this will enable us to break down any barriers connected to anxiety. New members to the group will be able to meet Robbie online at 1pm every Monday. 

For more information and to refer, please contact Robert Chandler 

Mondays:

Dementia Active – AT7 Coventry, 10am - 12noon

MENtalk – New online sessions – 1pm - 2pm

Thursdays:

MENtalk – Moat House Leisure Centre Coventry – 12noon - 2pm

They look forward to welcoming you.