Health & Social Care

We offer support to professionals working in health or social care.

Professional Training

Our Professional Training Lead can create and deliver bespoke training sessions for your team, deliver workshops and information sessions about Suffolk Family Carers services, support events, courses and conferences. Awareness raising sessions will include;

  • help to identify family carers and take into account their needs
  • information about all our services for all age groups of family carers in a wide range of settings and
  • information about how to refer and signpost to additional advice and support.

Bespoke sessions could focus on family carers in a specific environment, such as a GP surgery, hospital setting, community team or outreach service. They could be about specific aspects relating to family carers, such as Carer Assessments, or they could be generic, but they will be linked to the context and wherever possible be integrated into work that is already going on.

Family Carer Champions training has been delivered in acute hospitals for a number of years and hospital staff build on their knowledge gained to help identify, support and signpost family carers, to information and advice. Some will be visiting and some are patients.

Hospital Discharge Toolkit

The Carers and Hospital Discharge Toolkit for London Hospitals and Community Providers is a guide for professionals designed to help them navigate through various stages of a carer pathway related to hospital discharge. Whilst created by partners in London, and for London Hospitals, it can be used by any hospital across the country that recognises the importance of including and supporting carers in the discharge process.

The toolkit will help hospitals identify carers of all ages; welcoming them as a carer and recognising their vital role in care and discharge. It will help hospitals signpost carers for further support, including statutory Carer’s Assessments and help professionals involve carers in discussions and decisions; through to transition – ensuring carers have a seamless experience when moving through services.

The toolkit provides top tips and checklists for each stage of the pathway and provides links to information, resources and good practice that already exists.

Professional information sessions

Professional information sessions are held regularly at our HQ in Claydon to familiarise professionals working within statutory and voluntary organisations about the services we offer to family carers. To find out more information as well as up-coming dates, please visit our events calendar.

Initiatives developed with Professionals

Through working across Suffolk with professionals, a number of initiatives have been developed and implemented to support different environments to become or recognise how ‘family friendly’ they are, and really focus on family carers. The Acute Hospital Family Friendly Award has helped to embed good work in both Ipswich and West Suffolk hospitals. In each site some areas have undertaken a robust, thorough assessment process to self assess against 8 areas of their practice, and processes, then undertake group discussions with teams of assessors sharing their good practice, and finally receive a Bronze, Silver or Gold award. These are proudly displayed in wards across both hospital sites.

Suffolk Family Carers have commenced an exciting partnership with the Suffolk Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC) to promote and support the Healthy Living Pharmacy work in community pharmacies. The Pharmacy Champions within stores can access information and useful materials to enable them to proactively look out for family carers and help to signpost them to services and support. To find out more about this Carer Friendly Pharmacy Award please contact us.

If you have an idea where you feel that training or awareness raising about Suffolk Family Carer issues or related information, please contact us.

Family Carer Better Practice Forum

We host a forum for professionals working with family carers aged 18+. We discuss issues raised by family carers and useful services. We often have guest speaker giving updates on new developments and services. The forum meets every 2-3 months in Claydon. If you would like to know more about the forum or our professional training, please visit our events calendar.

Useful information

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