Webinar Date: Wednesday 19 June 2019
Delivered by: Laura Bennett

This webinar, with Laura Bennett from Carers Trust, will provide a short overview of the role of carers in supporting people with mental health needs and the prevention of their ill-health, but also how carers themselves are impacted and experience mental health conditions as a result.

A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member who due to illness, disability, a mental health condition or an addiction cannot cope without their support.

There are approximately 1.5 million carers of people with mental health problems in the UK. Involving carers as expert partners in care of people with mental health needs leads to better outcomes for carers, service users and health and social care staff alike – avoiding crisis, responding to crises quickly, discharge from hospital, compliance with medication regimes, better engagement with psychosocial support and other therapeutic treatment. Confidentiality is often misunderstood and misused by many health and social care professionals, who don’t always communicate with, or involve, carers effectively. When considering how best services can help carers, and how services are performing for people with mental health conditions, it is important to consider carers’ experiences of services, and not just the experience of direct service users. Evidence shows that being a carer is also a risk factor for carers’ own mental health, with young carers (children and young people under 18) being of particular concern. Identifying carers is an important first step for health and social care staff to take, to avoid carers’ health needs worsening, which will also impact of the care of the person they care for.

Carers Trust is the UK’s largest national charity supporting unpaid carers. They reach approximately 500,000 carers each year and support carers through the biggest network of local carers organisations in the UK, known as Network Partners. Carers Trust have an unparalleled reach to unpaid carers through this network, 107 Network Partners in England (with 141 Network Partners in total across the UK). Carers of people with mental health needs are one of five groups of carers they have identified need particular help and support in our organisational strategy Make Carers Count.