Social care online

Across Government, the shared ambition is to put people first through a radical reform of public services, enabling people to live their own lives as they wish, confident that services are of high quality, are safe and promote their own individual needs for independence, well-being and dignity.

Background: Consumer and carer participation in mental health service development and evaluation has widespread nominal support. However, genuine and consistent participation remains elusive due to systemic barriers.

Aims: This paper explores barriers to reform for mental health services from the perspectives of consumers and carers actively engaged in advocating for improvements in the mental health system.

Disability and Carers Service (DCS) is part of the Department for Work and Pensions. DCS helps disabled people and carers to lead independent lives by administering and delivering, disability benefits, providing advice on benefits, and supporting the Government's commitment to increasing the inclusion of disabled people in society.

It is clear that carers reduce the amount of input that social services and other agencies need to make. It is estimated that there are 185,000 carers in Northern Ireland and that 11 per cent of households here contain a carer. The Act places a requirement on Trusts to inform carers of their right to carer’s assessment and gives Trusts the power to supply services directly to carers to help the carer in their caring role.

People with intellectual disabilities require training to improve independence, and carers are important partners in the process. Studies show that carers are able to motivate family members with intellectual disabilities to participate in training. In addition, family members may serve as cotrainers. To increase carers' participation, it is necessary to empower them with training techniques and develop strategies to relieve their stress.

The Scottish Government established the User and Carer Forum upon publication of Changing Lives, in order to provide an opportunity for service users and carers to directly influence and shape the development and implementation of the Changing Lives agenda. The Forum was particularly asked to follow up on the idea of Citizen Leadership and has developed a set of principles (with suggested standards and indicators to help demonstrate how these can apply) by which the leadership contribution of those who use services can be guided and supported.

The Taskforce feels strongly that the recognition of carers role and contribution is a priority and essential to achieving equality for carers, and this is reflected in the recommendations. The group considered two potential approaches to strengthening this; extending protection to carers under legislation. This would not only provide an important underpinning to the other recommendations but also have a real and lasting impact for carers in the longer term.

This DVD has been developed for those caring for people with dementia. It explains how symptoms are caused and how they affect the behaviour patterns of people with dementia. Expert advice from a consultant psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist is included. Carers also share their experience of learning what it is like to live with a partner with dementia.