Carers are supported and enabled to make decisions about their wish to continue to care.
For extra information, evidence and best practice please scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Regional offerings
Dementia Wellbeing Plan for Greater Manchester; Dementia United
Weblink: https://dementia-united.org.uk/dementia-wellbeing-plan/
Let's talk about death, shall we?
Website: https://www.penninecare.nhs.uk/application/files/2415/8151/4384/Dementia_end_of_life_leaflet.pdf
Manchester Macmillan Supportive and Palliative Care Community Service
Who is the service for?
Our service is usually for people whose illness means they are thought to be in the last year of life. However, we also provide care for people with longer life-limiting illness. We also provide support to families and carers. This is a really important part of supporting patients.
What does the service provide?
The service works from three hubs across Manchester so our teams work in their local neighbourhoods. The hubs are located in North, Central and South Manchester.
The teams provide support for adults facing life-limiting illness who are registered with a Manchester GP. The most common example is cancer, but our teams support patients with other conditions. We visit patients in their own home or care home. We also provide telephone support and advice when required.
The teams recognise that emotional, family, financial and spiritual concerns may be just as important to you as physical problems. We can:
- Provide treatment and advice to help manage any symptoms
- Offer practical advice and support to do the things that are important to you
- Support families and carers
- Signpost to other services including financial advice
- Support you to make choices and plan for your future.
Manchester Macmillan Supportive and Palliative Care Service Adult Referral Form: Macmillan Referral Form July final version
National offerings
ReSPECT for healthcare professionals
Website: https://www.resus.org.uk/respect/respect-healthcare-professionals
Evidence
The Care Act 2014 gives local authorities a responsibility to assess a carer’s needs for support, where the carer appears to have such needs. This replaces the existing law, which says that the carer must be providing ‘a substantial amount of care on a regular basis’ in order to qualify for an assessment. This will mean more carers are able to have an assessment, comparable to the right of the people they care for.
The local authority will assess whether the carer has needs and what those needs may be. This assessment will consider the impact of caring on the carer. It will also consider the things that a carer wants to achieve in their own day-to-day life. It must also consider other important issues, such as whether the carer is able or willing to carry on caring, whether they work or want to work, and whether they want to study or do more socially.
If both the carer and the person they care for agree, a combined assessment of both their needs can be undertaken. When the assessment is complete, the local authority must decide whether the carer’s needs are ‘eligible’ for support from the local authority. In the case of carers, eligibility depends on the carer’s situation. The carer will be entitled to support if:
- they are assessed as having needs that meet the eligibility criteria
- the person they care for lives in the local authority area (which means their established home is in that local authority area)
The local authority and the carer will agree a support plan, which sets out how the carer’s needs will be met. This might include help with housework, buying a laptop to keep in touch with family and friends, or becoming a member of a gym so that the carer can look after their own health. It may be that the best way to meet a carer’s needs is to provide care and support directly to the person that they care for, for example, by providing replacement care to allow the carer to take a break. It is possible to do this as long as the person needing care agrees.
Carers UK Assessment factsheet. Your guide to getting help and support in England: The support plan must include:
- details of the needs identified in the assessment
- which needs meet the eligibility criteria
- which needs the local council is going to meet, and how the outcomes that you want to achieve
- information about the personal budget available (the amount of money that the local council has worked out it will cost to arrange the necessary support for you)
- information about direct payments
- information and advice to support you in your role as a carer and address your needs.