1. Well Carer Project Working together for carer well being
Alicia Ridout & Siân Cartwright
June 2015
Introduce our selves
2. Exercise: who is or has been a carer (show of hands) who was or is also working and caring (show of hands) – turn to the person next to you and share one activity you personally have let go or put on hold as a direct result of caring. It could be a hobby, something small you like doing for your self.
3. Show of hands if this is something which helped or helps you de-stress, chill out.
Carers UK Survey 2015
60% carers felt they could not see how they were going to keep working……. also found 65% carers who did give up work did so as a result of the challenges of juggling work and caring, home and other areas of their lives.
68% used annual leave to carry out caring activities.
50% of those surveyed expected their quality of life to deteriorate. 82% felt it had impacted their health and wellbeing.
This level of impact is backed up by other data in the UK and abroad.

2. Approach
Most research and policy documents refer to patients and carers, service users and carers- my experience as a carer was nothing like that of the people I cared for and I often felt lost as a person in my own right.
So….
Focus not on caree, person being cared for but just on the impact on the carers.
Well Carer Project 2015

3. Background to the project
Virtual Cycles research project with Carers Leeds and the University of Leeds (part of N8)
College of Occupational Therapy, Institute of Social Psychiatry funded scoping project
N8 work – workshops using a framework to rapid prototype solutions usually used in the aerospace industry….
Issues raised during workshops were largely occupational and to do with the impact on carers daily activities
So we successfully bid, supported by Carers Leeds, for COT ISP Award funding to run a small scoping study to see how the knowledge and expertise of OTs could be more easily accessed by carers to prevent such a substantial impact on the balance of daily activities, many of which were helpful in managing stress.
Discussions with Carers Leeds flagged that there were particular concerns accessing working carers and so it was decided to focus efforts on this group.
A wordpress site was set up and blogs outlining the background and project information was uploaded.
Well Carer Project 2015

4. Approach person environment occupation
This diagram represents an OT view of a person with a mismatch in their occupational status.
The small overlap means incongruity and imbalance for them as a unique individual – this is a risk to their wellbeing.
So this is what we were looking at.
SIAN…..
Well Carer Project 2015

5. How did we recruit working carers?
Carers Leeds newsletter plus:
Leeds City Council
Leeds University
Leeds Beckett University
Participants received pre-workshop information by or post and via the wordpress site and an £20 M&S voucher
Carers Leeds led all the recruitment activity and supported carers throughout, offering assessment etc….
Newsletter circulated to 8k people in Leeds but also contacted HR/OD leaders who supported us via their carer registers.
Initial contact provided information about the project, what carers might expect and a general discussion focused on any help they might like to support them at that time.
Well Carer Project 2015

6. What did we do?
Ran 2 workshops, plus a follow up meeting with participants who helped shape and edit the final report & recommendations.
Information was given about:
Occupational Therapy
Entry level stress management
Group worked together to share ideas and solutions, issues and challenges
Each workshop included people caring for a range of people, including dementia and were aged 30-66…. We included tasters of evidence based relaxation techniques and stress management tools
We looked at triggers to major changes in their feelings of wellbeing during the caring journey
And used a funnel approach to prioritising themes (using 5ww2wb)
The outcomes - Alicia used some OT, organisational and well being tools to analyse the results.
Well Carer Project 2015

7. Some of the comments from carers and the occupational impacts…
More detail in the report you have….
Well Carer Project 2015

8. Highlight points Significant issues relating to a loss of aspirations
Potential areas for future concern re loss of significant activities which were protective
Numbers of people who had never sought carer support before
Significant adaptability but hampered in acting on this by a range of factors
Loss of dreams and work related (economic too) hopes for their own development
Protective re health and wellbeing and stress/resiliance
Factors: environment, resources, lack of use of their support networks linked to guilt.
Well Carer Project 2015

9. What next from OT side?
Presenting the project next week at the national COT conference
Further social media discussion about sharing skills
Further exploration of working carers using an OT tool kit to optimise independence pre-service referral
Development of a technology solution
Well Carer Project 2015

10. What next – Carers Leeds actions:
Monthly working carers support group at Carers Leeds
Develop topic based working carer support sessions e.g. stress management
Bi-monthly appointment sessions for staff carers at Leeds University
Support for staff carers at the Leeds hospitals
Access to Carers Leeds services e.g. Dementia Carer Training, Caring Well course, newsletterr, 1-1 support, social activities etc
Well Carer Project 2015

11. Thank you and questions?