Do you know a patient who is due to be discharged and needs some help at home?
Included in our Health and Wellbeing Team is the Discharge Support team who are available to help if you are caring for someone at North Middlesex, Chase Farm or Barnet Hospitals. Our worker can meet you on the wards, help you to talk to the doctors and healthcare team and register you for support at ECC.
Our worker can help you through the complexities of the discharge process and refer you to free community support services such as Alpha Care Specialists’ ‘Free Home from Hospital’ service.
This service can offer free low level support such as collecting medication, shopping for essential items, basic food preparation, or light housework for up to six weeks after hospital discharge. They cannot help with personal care e.g. washing, toileting; form filling e.g. benefits or giving medication.
For more information see the leaflet on your screen, print for reading later or contact Mark Warwick on email: healthcaremanager@enfieldcarers.org or telephone 020 8366 3677.
Training and Information
We offer free Hospital Discharge and Basic Nursing Skills training. Carers can learn valuable nursing skills to help keep your loved one safe and well after a hospital discharge and also further prevent hospital admissions.
Is the person you care for in hospital or leaving soon?
- Have they recently been in hospital and are now being treated at home by community or district nurses?
- Have they have had surgery or an infection?
- Are they visiting their local GP surgery for a disability or long-term condition?
- Do you want to avoid an unnecessary trip back to A&E or to your GP?
- Would you like to learn clinical skills and gain a better understanding of the NHS structure to prevent the person you are looking after from being admitted to hospital?
If you said “Yes” to any of the above – this course is for you!
Topics covered include:
- Medication safety at home and awareness of side effects
- Skin care and prevention of pressure sores or ulcers
- Avoiding hospital re-admissions through prevention
- Understanding swallowing difficulties and NHS support for this condition
- Signs of allergies or infection and what action to take
- Unwell out of hours? What community services can you access? Where to go? Who to call?
This training is run in association with NHS Health Education England and Enfield Community Education Provider Network.
All attendees with receive an attendance certificate and our free training booklet.
The training includes our “Understanding Hospital Discharge for Carers” video which is available in several community languages as well as signed and subtitled versions. These videos can be viewed on YouTube – Enfield Carers Centre.
NHS London has launched a Carers and Hospital Discharge Toolkit to improve the experiences of Carers and the people they care for during the hospital discharge journey.
Designed for London hospitals and community providers in partnership with Carers UK, Mobilise, Carers First, Carers Trust and the London Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), the co-produced resource provides action-orientated top tips to better support Londoners when someone they care for is being discharged from hospital.
A Carer is anyone who provides help to a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of their illness, frailty, a mental health problem or an addiction and cannot cope without their support.
“In recognising Carers’ rights, roles and responsibilities, the Health and Care Act has formalised the spirit of co-production and personalised care with and not only for Carers and those they support – and this resource pack illustrates how we can make best use of these new opportunities.”
Dame Philippa Russell DBE
How Your GP Can Help You, as a Carer
On average, 1 in 10 patients at each GP Practice are Carers.
Our Carers GP Liaison Project aims to ensure you are better supported by your GP Practice.
Carers are twice as likely to suffer from ill health as non-carers. More than half of those who provide more substantial care have suffered physical ill health as a result of caring, and more than 70 per cent of those caring round the clock have suffered mental ill health at some time .
What can your GP do to support you as a Carer?
- Acknowledging you as a patient who is also a Carer, will mean that your GP is on the lookout for early signs that you’re possibly taking on too much at the expense of your own health needs.
- Prevention is also better than cure as we all know. So, if you receive regular free health checks and an annual flu jab, you can avoid some longer-term problems, if these are spotted earlier. Most GPs will be happy to arrange these for Carers as they are important for safeguarding yourself and the older, disabled or seriously ill relatives you support during the winter months.
- Most GP practices in Enfield have signed up to offer annual NHS Health Check to Carers, but if your surgery doesn’t know you are a Carer, you may be missing out.
- Tell your GP surgery you are a Carer and ask to be added to their Carer Register
- Ask your GP for an appointment for an Annual Health Check – it is your right!
- Ask your surgery if they will hold a consent form on file from your cared for to enable you to discuss their health
Happily, the majority of surgeries in Enfield are working with us and should have information and leaflets about the Carers Centre on display.
We have also trained Carers Champions within some GP Practices who have agreed to help identify, support and signpost Carers to the centre.
Whilst we can’t promise that we can solve them all, our GP Liaison Worker and our Health & Wellbeing Team will do their best to help liaise with staff at your surgery to overcome any issues.
Young Carers and GPs
NHS England has outlined a series of practical plans and actions designed to help young carers who may be ‘hidden’, unpaid and under the age of sixteen.
Family doctors across the country can volunteer to offer services for children and young adults who perform an informal caring role for a family member.
This includes priority appointments for Carers, home visits, additional mental health checks, and ‘double appointments’ for the Carer and those they provide care.
Click this link for more information: https://www.england.nhs.uk/2019/06/nhs-sets-out-care-for-young-carers-offer-in-gp-surgeries/
