“My name is Helen Dowse and I am an Online Awareness Raiser for Carers UK. I track Carers UK on Twitter and share posts to my local network. I hope I am providing information to carers that comes from a reliable source and that they find it helpful. I would recommend it if you have time. It gets the information out there that is current, up to date and accurate and is beneficial to carers. 

“I also volunteer for a number of other organisations in Salisbury, one of which is Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust. While I was volunteering at the hospital, I found I was being asked all sorts of things by patients’ family members – what the difference was between the GP, the hospital, the community, social services, the council, etc. However, information was very difficult to find as the health and social care sector is so very complex. That’s why being able to signpost carers to sites such as Carers UK where they will find accurate and up to date information is so important. 

“As I started to find out what support was available, I came to realise that the family members were also unpaid carers. I also realised that I had supported my parents towards the end of their lives in the role of unpaid carer and not just daughter. As a consequence, I took over running the Carers Café at the hospital and have been invited to talk to various groups of staff to raise their awareness of involving unpaid carers in patient care. I often start my sessions by asking the staff if any of them are a carer in addition to their jobs. It is interesting that they often say at the end of the talk that they hadn’t realised they were unpaid carers too!  

“I like to tell them how so very valuable the knowledge of the carer is while the patient is in hospital, as they are very often experts in the care of the patient. A short conversation with the carer can be very helpful and often makes the experience so much easier for everyone.”