Extracts from the updated Carer strategy Document. Important because the lead for Carer support is now the Local Authority and their initiatives locally are likely to be addressed mostly to general health carers, who mostly agree an interest with the people they care for. Serious and enduring mental illnesses are different and have a different secondary health care system. Carers of family members who have schizophrenia often have to speak up for them when the illness gets them in a mess they can't themselves speak about or get out of.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “ ... Carers should be supported as individuals and in their families and communities to help shape, develop and run local services, if they wish to be involved.
Carers should be supported as individuals and in their families and communities to help shape, develop and run local services, if they wish to be involved.
Carers will be respected as expert care partners carers can often feel excluded by clinicians
– both health and social care professionals should respect, inform and involve carers more as expert partners in care;
we have identified four priority area Supporting those with caring responsibilities to identify themselves as carers at an early stage, recognising the value of their contribution and involving them from the outset both in designing local care provision and in planning individual care packages.
Carers often do not feel valued or recognised as expert and equal partners in care.
Involving carers in planning and designing hospital discharge arrangements and individual care packages is common sense as they are key partners in ensuring effective delivery of care at home.
A whole family approach in assessment, enabling both the individuals who need support and those who will support them to identify their own needs and desired outcomes, is much more likely to result in individual care packages that can be sustained effectively.

Councils and their strategic partners should routinely involve carers in their Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and development of local carers strategies to ensure that the needs of carers of all ages within the local population, including carers within ethnic minority communities, are adequately reflected.

It is important that local organisations provide reciprocal support to carers and ensure that they do not feel isolated as a result of their role.

The shift to an outcomes-based approach to commissioning and procurement should ensure that carers and those they support have the information and advice they need to make confident decisions about their own care and support.
Carers and the people they support should have the opportunity to play active roles in the design, development, delivery and review of innovative and personalised care and support arrangements in order to maximise choice and independence