Carers

This film focuses on the work of Nicola James, a social worker for Surrey County Council. Nicola works with disabled young adults and their carers. She introduces us to Caroline Hunter, who cares for her son, who is autistic and has severe learning disabilities. Nicola’s work with the Hunter family demonstrates how considering the needs of both the service user and the carer can have a positive impact on the whole family.

This film details the requirements on universities teaching the social work degree to involve service user and carers in their courses. It also sets out the benefits that result from students working with service users and carers, with users and carers describing how this leads to improved practice and how students explaining the value of learning about the realities of people's lives. The film will be of interest to social worker educators, students on social work courses, people working more broadly in co-production/participation and service users and carers.

This film focuses on Rose Fernandes who cares for her mother, who has dementia, and her daughter, who is autistic and has learning difficulties. She uses direct payments to pay for people to help with her daughter’s care, but for her mother she relies on agency staff. She finds this method tough as the agency staff only come at certain times, leaving her to care for her mum alone throughout the night. Meanwhile, her daughter Crystal receives much more flexible care, but direct payments leave her with a lot of paperwork to do. Note: This film is no longer available.

Better diagnosis has played a key role in identifying the children and adults with autistic spectrum disorder. Current figures estimate that 500,000 families throughout the UK are affected. And because autism is a spectrum disorder, it affects people at differing levels of cognitive functioning with three distinct areas of impairment.

Presents an overview of seven pieces of research into the needs of older people. Includes technological support, meal choices for people with dementia, and a study of the Carers' Act.

This e-learning training module aims to support re-orientation and re-skilling of staff directly involved in decision-making using Fair access to care services (FACS) and eligibility criteria, their supervisors and line managers, and those monitoring and reporting on the operations of the system.

In this video representatives from four universities describe the ways in which service users and carers participate in social work degree courses. It looks at the benefits user and carer involvement brings to the courses and how they gain from the experience of participation. The film will be useful for  is relevant to social worker educators, social work students, people working more broadly in co-production/participation and service users and carers.

Independent assessment and access to direct payments are among the new rights accorded to carers under the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000.

A short video aimed at patients and carers which features a number of professionals, patients and carers, who talk about how a more personalised approach to care can improve outcomes.

NHS teams should also make carers aware of statutory right to social services assessment and explain process. [Journal abstract]