Involvement Opportunities for Carers

We are committed to ongoing engagement and involvement of carers to shape and inform the effective development and delivery of our services.  Opportunities include:

• Carers Reference Group

  

  This group is chaired by the Assistant Director for Older People’s Services and includes carers and carer support organisation representatives as well as key Trust staff.  The group develops an annual carer’s action plan to address the on-going needs and issues relating to carers in the Southern Trust area.  It meets on a quarterly basis to discuss and monitor progress on the implementation of the Carer’s Strategy and the Trust Carer’s Action Plan.

  Carer’s Action Plan 2018-2020

  The outcomes of the group to date include ensuring greater carer involvement, promotion of carer’s assessments, the innovative use of direct payments and self-directed support and ensuring greater availability of carer driven services and information.

  If you are interested in working with the Trust to shape and develop services for carers to ensure that they are supported in their caring role and available to attend four meetings a year from 10am-12.30 pm, we can provide:

  • Support and training
  • Reimbursement of out of pocket expenses
  • The opportunity to learn more about and influence the Trust’s carer support services

  For further information and details on application, please contact the Carers Coordinator Tel: 028 3756 6284  carers.coordinator@southerntrust.hscni.net

• Carers’ Forums

  There are also a number of programme specific carer forums across the Trust.  Currently the following programmes of care have a carer’s forum:

  • Mental Health
  • Adult Learning Disability
  • Cancer Services
  • Autism Services
  • Children with Disabilities
  • CAMHS
  • Dementia
  • Residential and Day Care Older People

  For further information and details on application, please contact the key worker, or The Carers Coordinator at carers.coordinator@southerntrust.hscni.net

• Planning and shaping health and social care services

  The Trust is currently reviewing Day Care and Day Opportunities for adults with a disability across the Southern Trust.  We know that there is a growing need for Day Services and want to make sure that we can support everyone who needs our services in the future. The review is looking at:

  • How we assess people to see if they need our support and agree what support is appropriate for their needs
  • How suitable our buildings and facilities are
  • The support services we need to provide day services
  • The staffing needed to provide day services
• Other opportunities for Personal and Public Involvement

  Each of the Trust’s operational directorates facilitate a variety of long standing service improvement groups which include service user and carer representation.  Details for involvement opportunities and the relevant contact details can be found on the PPI section of the Trust website

• Training for carer involvement

  An eLearning Personal and Public Involvement training module is available on the Engage website. Engage is being developed as the one stop website for involvement in health and social care.

  An Advocacy Information Booklet has been designed to improve staff understanding of: what advocacy is; its role in the health and social care context; and to provide a list of advocacy services currently available within the Southern Trust area. It will also be of interest to existing advocacy service providers, service users and their carers as well as advocates themselves, all of whom have a clear interest in how advocacy services are being used in a health and social care setting.

  Find out more about involvement within the Southern Trust or contact the PPI Team at Tel: 028 3756 4472 Email: ppi.team@southerntrust.hscni.net