A BRADFORD charity which supports hospital patients in BRI and Airedale General is urging people to continue to use its two services.
Carers’ Resource runs the Home from Hospital and Carer Navigator projects.
Home from Hospital is a well-established team that works closely with vulnerable and older people who have just been discharged from hospital and need extra support. Carer Navigators help family and friends of adult patients who are inpatients in hospital.
Home from Hospital is still taking referrals from professionals in the hospitals, community hospitals, and social care during the coronavirus pandemic. The free service eases a patient’s return home, helps them to rebuild confidence and independence, and aims to prevent hospital readmission.
The team will contact clients by phone to discuss any concerns and needs, such as shopping. They will try to ensure the people they work with are safe and have their immediate needs met, and they will refer them to statutory and local voluntary sector services if required. To contact Home from Hospital call 01274 531377.
Carer Navigators help family and friends of adult patients who are inpatients in hospital. They help with concerns or questions such as, “What support is there for me?”, “How am I going to cope?” and, “What about residential/home care and how do I pay for it?”
To contact the Carer Navigators, family and friends of inpatients at Bradford Royal Infirmary can call 07394569712 or 07394569713, while those with loved ones at Airedale General Hospital can phone 07394569714 or 07394569715.
Carers’ Resource runs several projects but its core aim is to be a lifeline for unpaid carers, who provide help and support to a friend, neighbour or relative who could not manage otherwise because of frailty, illness or disability.
The charity’s head of operations for the Bradford district Jan Burrows oversees Home from Hospital and carer navigators, which are free services. She said: “We are reminding people that we are here to help and support our NHS and social care colleagues as normal, by helping to keep discharged patients safe and well in their homes and supporting people who have loved ones in hospital.
“We obviously can’t go into hospitals at the moment, but there are ways and means to continue our vital work, and we’re adapting so we can carry on and still be there for people.”
Unpaid carers can contact Carers’ Resource at www.carersresource.org/contact/ or call 01274 449660, 01423 500555, or 01756 700888. The charity also has Facebook and Twitter social media accounts, and a dedicated website for young carers at https://youngcarersresource.org/
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- Carers’ Resource is a local charity supporting 16,000 unpaid carers in Bradford district, and the Harrogate and Skipton areas through one-to-one support, casework, information, support groups, employment and training advice, planning for emergencies, and maintaining wellbeing. See carersresource.org
- Anyone can become a carer at any time. Three in five of us will become carers at some point in our lives. Carers come from all walks of life, all cultures and can be of any age.
- Men are almost as likely as women to be carers – 42% of carers are men.
- The caring role can be instant, i.e. the result of a road traffic accident or a stroke, or it can creep up on someone, such as when an elderly parent becomes increasingly frail.
- Some caring situations can be lifelong, for example if a child is born with disabilities.
- There are more than seven million carersin the UK. By 2030, this number will increase by 3.4 million.
- 4 million people provide over 50 hours of unpaid care per week.
- There are around 4.87 million carers in the UK who are juggling work and caring responsibilities – amounting to one in seven of all workers. In a recent report The State of Caring 2019, 38% of carers said they had to give up work to care for a loved one and a further 18% had reduced their working hours.
- The economic value of the contribution made by unpaid carers in the UK is estimated to be £132bn a year – roughly the same as the NHS budget.
- 39% of carers responding to The State of Caring 2019 survey said they were struggling to make ends meet financially, and 47% of these carers coped by cutting back on essentials such as food and heating.
- 81% of carers report having ever felt lonely or isolated as a result of their caring role and the same percentage say they are not able to do as much physical exercise as they would like (The State of Caring 2019 report).
- According to the NHS Information Centre Survey for Carers in Households: Most carers (40%) care for their parents or parents-in-law Over a quarter (26%) care for their spouse or partner. People caring for disabled children under 18 account for 8% of carers and 5% of carers are looking after adult children. A further 4% care for their grandparents and 7% care for another relative. Whilst the majority care for relatives, one in ten carers (9%) care for a friend or neighbour.