Carers Support

You may not consider yourself a carer as caring is often something, we do for family or friends without question and without defining or labeling it as such. If you provide care to someone who needs help because of their illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction and they couldn’t manage without your support then you are a carer.

Carers may be of any age and perform any number of different tasks to support the person they are caring for from providing practical support like shopping and meal preparation to personal care such as washing and dressing or even emotional support.

Carers Lead

The Carers Lead at the surgery is Kate Trevett. She has worked at the surgery since 2018 initially as part of the reception team and now holds dual roles here as the Care Co-Ordinator and Carers Lead. Kate is passionate about identifying and supporting as many carers as possible.

Being a carer is often rewarding but we also know the role can be challenging and for some people very isolating. We at Puddletown Surgery want to support our carers, we know what a valuable and important role you have. Therefore, it is important that you let us know that you are a carer.

To tell us you’re a carer please call us on 01305 848333 or email puddletown.reception@dorsetgp.nhs.uk marking for the attention of Kate, Carers Lead. Alternatively let a member of staff when you are next in the surgery.

Once you’ve told us you care for someone we will add you to our carer’s register which means practice staff will be aware of your role and we may be able to offer you further support to take care of your own health such as free flu vaccinations, referrals to dedicated carer’s services for specialized support and more. All newly registered carers will receive a call or letter from our Carers Lead Kate and a carers support pack.

If you care for someone who lives in the Dorset Council area we encourage all our carers to also register with Carer Support Dorset. They are a nonprofit service funded by Dorset Council who help carers access services and information to make their role easier, including training, befriending, benefits advice etc. They also offer a carers discount card once registered which offers discounts at many local shops and services. CRISP is the service if you care for someone living in Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole.

Puddletown is one of nine surgeries within the Mid Dorset Primary Care Network (PCN). The PCN was set up in order for our local surgeries in Mid Dorset to work together to enable a great provision of proactive, personalised, coordinated and integrated health and social care for people closer to home.

That is why we have created a joint Carers Information Page on the PCN website which holds the rest of the information that is available to support you as a carer:

Carers « Mid Dorset Primary Care Network (mid-dorsetpcn.co.uk)

Please now visit the PCN Carers Information page for further information, advice and support on things such as:

• Young carers
• Planning ahead
• In an emergency
• Support for carers in our Dorset hospitals
• Carer's Assessment

Leaflets

Carers Emergency Plan

aring for someone with dementia

Dorset Carers Hub leaflet

If only I'd known that

Wessex Water priority service

We have been working hard over the last year to identify and support our carers. We made a submission to the Better Care for Carers Scheme, and I am delighted to report that we have been awarded the Gold award.

The panel summarised that they felt this was an exceptional submission way beyond what we were expecting in the first year of the scheme. ‘You have evidenced an organisational culture where all staff are encouraged to ‘think carer’, and supporting the health of both the carer and the cared for is clearly a priority’. The panel were blown away by the sheer enthusiasm and passion for carer support that shone through the submission. The panel concluded that Puddletown Surgery have demonstrated evidence which confidently achieves the criteria set out in Gold. There are specific areas of development, most of which have already been identified by yourselves, in which if these are addressed, would mean you would be awarded Platinum level next year.

I attended the presentation evening with Kate, our carers lead, and Dr Burnham. We all felt incredibly proud of the team, and it was humbling to listen to the impact the care from the surgery has had on the carers who shared their stories.  We are committed to continuing the carers work and the scheme because you see its value for our patients.

Clare Stickland, Practice Manager