• Being a carer

  Being the carer of a loved one who is older, disabled or seriously ill can have a huge impact on your own life. We offer advice on how to look after yourself and get the support that you need.

  4 articles 1 real-life story

• Respite care

  We explain the respite options available, how to choose and finance this type of care, and the benefits it offers you and the person you care for.

  8 articles 2 real-life stories

• Carer’s assessment

  Following changes in the Care Act in 2015, more people now have access to a carer's assessment. Find out how to apply for it.

  3 articles

• Benefits for carers

  Carer's allowance, carer's credit and universal credit (carer element) are government benefits you might be eligible for if you spend more than a certain number of hours a week caring for a relative or friend.

  3 articles

• Carers' rights at work

  In this guide we explain what you’re entitled to in your workplace as a carer - including your right to request flexible working, take time off for emergencies and work without discrimination.

  4 articles

• Talking about care options

  There may be times when you need to have a conversation with a relative about their future. Our guide offers advice about effective communication, helping both parties to get the best out of difficult discussions.  

  Source: http://www.which.co.uk/elderly-care/for-carers

Amadeus Recovery House

Type: Crisis

Region: London

Recovery house offer person centred recovery focussed interventions for people with mental health problems

Further information

For further information nationally about our groups and services, please contact us on 0121 522 7007
or email info@rethink.org

Contact details

18 Corfton Road
Ealing
Middlesex
W5 2HT
Tel: 0208 998 7800

Opening hours

This service is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Harrow Rethink Support Group

Region: London

Group open to: Carers and People with Mental Illness

The group is open to carers, people experiencing mental illness and their families and friends. The group provides mutual support and access to information via its meetings, monthly newsletter, available by email and post, and aims to improve local mental health policies and services by promoting members views on local committees.

Further information

For further information nationally about our groups and services, please contact us on 0121 522 7007
or email info@rethink.org

Contact details

Jennifer Zeffman, Ann Freeman, Mary Prazer
0208 4277737 (Ann)
Harrow
Greater London
Email: harrowsupportgroup@rethink.org

Meeting times

The support group meets on the first Wednesday evening in the month, excluding August, from 7pm in Harrow. Harrow Community Choir meets on Tuesday evening from 6.30pm in Harrow. The other group, TOG, a social and activity group, meets on Wednesday afternoon, excluding the first Wednesday in the month from 1pm in Harrow.

London Carers Service (Hillingdon)

Type: Carer support

Region: London

Area Covered: London Boroughs of Hillingdon and Ealing

North West London Carers provides information and support to friends and families caring for someone experiencing severe mental health issues in Hillingdon and Ealing.

Further information

For further information nationally about our groups and services, please contact us on 0121 522 7007
or email info@rethink.org

Contact details

Key House
106 High Street
Yiewsley
Middlesex
UB7 7BQ
Tel: 01895 441835
Fax: 01895 441835
Email: hillingdoncarers@rethink.org

Opening hours

Jointly is an app that makes caring for someone a little easier, less stressful and a lot more organised by making communication and coordination between those who share the care as easy as a text message.

Jointly at a glance

Jointly combines group messaging with other useful features including to-do and medication lists, calendar and more.

Home

Invite people, see who is in your circle, view a log of recent activity

Profile

Store useful information about the person you are looking after and access it any time at a click of a button!

Messaging

Communicate with everyone in your Jointly circle at a touch of a button! Simply post a message or upload an image.

Notes

Create and organise notes and store images, sort them into categories or just view as a simple list.

Tasks

Keep organised and on top of things by using tasks and task lists. Simply create a task and assign it to any member of your Jointly circle, including yourself, and monitor its status.

Calendar

Create date/time specific events and invite anyone in your circle.

Medications

Keep track of current and past medication of the person you are caring for. You can also upload an image to quickly recognise a medicine.

Contacts

Store useful contacts and access their details anytime, anywhere!

Settings

Manage circle and personal account settings

National Care Forum - a map of not for profit care homes across the UK. 

Chill 4 Us Carers

They are a free peer support community offering help for carers and support with others who find themselves in the caring role. There is no need to feel isolated or afraid of the internet, as they are all there to support carers, and past carers, whether the problems be with benefits, disability, care of the elderly or children. The 24 hour chat room is there for fun and support and they have an arcade with over 600 free games, a carers discussion board and a free daily carers newspapers.

Chill4 Us Carers
157 - 159 Reepham Road
Hellesdon
Norwich
NR6 5PA

 Website: http://chill4uscarers.co.uk/

t : 01603 340193
e : support@chill4us.com

If you have PC, Laptop or Tablet you wish to donate to a carer please contact -

t : 01603 340193
w : www.computers4carers.co.uk

• PRINCESS ROYAL TRUST FOR CARERS

Provides a range of information, advice and support services for carers throughout the UK via a network of 129 independently managed Carers’ Centres and interactive websites.

Telephone: 020 7480 7788 (London Office), Monday-Friday, 9:00am-5:00pm (national rate) - also has offices in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Website: http:// www.carers.org

Carers can e-mail for advice and support: support@carers.org

This website covers many areas. Some are listed below:

• Heart disease
• HIV
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Online training for Dementia carers
• Continuing care
• Permanent care
• Respite care
• Booking a holiday
• Days out together
• Taking a holiday
• Travelling by air or sea
• Travelling with equipment and medicine
• Eating healthily
• Managing stress
• Taking care of yourself
• Top health tips
• Top tips to tackling loneliness and isolation
• After caring
• Carers and employment
• Dealing with change
• Right to flexible working
• Getting the most from your counsellor
• Getting the most from your GP
• Blue Badge Parking Scheme
• Days out together
• Driving Licenses
• Financial Help with Travel
• Personal Mobility
• Public transport
• Transport and mobility
• Bereavement
• Practical issues following a death
• Find your local services
• Government and statutory bodies
• Health Conditions
• Learning disabilities
• Mental health (links)
• Old age (links)

• ALZHEIMER'S SOCIETY

Provides information on dementia, including factsheets and helplines.

Phone: Helpline: 0300 222 1122 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm. Weekends, 10am-4pm)

Website: http:// www.alzheimers.org.uk

Please note that there is also a 24 hour forum.

Becoming a Dementia Friend gives people an understanding of dementia. This can make a huge difference to people with dementia and those around them. Please visit http://www.alzheimers.dementiafriends.org.uk for more information on how to become a friend.

• DEMENTIA UK

Gives practical advice and emotional support to anyone affected by Dementia.

Website: http://www.dementiauk.org.uk

Tel: 0845 257 9406

E-mail: direct@dementia.org

• CONTACT A FAMILY

http://www.cafamily.org.uk

Description of service

Provide information advice and support to families with disabled children no matter what their condition or disability. Freephone helpline for parents and carers with advice on welfare rights, community care issues, education needs, debt and a listening ear, with access to interpreters. Advice service for special educational needs (SEN). Link parents to local and national support groups throughout the UK. Registered immigration adviser who can give basic advice on immigration matters.

• Saga Respite for Carers Trust provides a limited number of free holidays each year for carers over the age of 50 and the people they look after.
• The Family Fund can provide grants towards the cost of holidays for families on a low income who are caring for a child with a severe disability.
• The Family Holiday Association is a UK charity providing breaks at holiday sites, or grants to help with the cost of a holiday, to low-income families in need of a holiday away from home. You need to be referred by your social worker, GP or health visitor, or by a charity or other welfare agent.
• The Children's Country Holiday Fund provides respite breaks in the countryside for young carers aged 6 to 16 and disadvantaged children and young people.

Call the Carers Direct helpline

You can call the Carers Direct helpline on 0300 123 1053 if you need help with your caring role and want to talk to someone about what options are available to you.

If you are busy at certain times of day, you can send the Carers Direct helpline a message and ask for an adviser to call you back for free at a time that is convenient to you.

These services are available for people living in or caring for someone in England.

Information given by the Carers Direct helpline

If you are a carer, the helpline advisers can give you information to help make decisions about your personal support needs and the needs of the person you're looking after.

This information includes assessments, benefits, direct payments, individual budgets, time off and maintaining, leaving or going back to work or education.

The Carers Direct helpline advisers can put you in touch with specialist national or local sources of help, including social care, healthcare and self-help networks and resources.

The helpline staff will tell you how to complain if anything goes wrong with any of the services you use, or put you in touch with your local authority or NHS services. 

What areas does Carers Direct not cover?

The Carers Direct helpline doesn't provide personal financial, medical or legal advice and doesn't provide casework, advocacy, representation or counselling.

The Carers Direct helpline is open seven days a week

The helpline is open from 9am-8pm Monday to Friday, and from 11am-4pm at weekends. The helpline is closed on bank holidays.

The cost of the call is the same as a call to a number beginning 01 or 02 (known as "geographic numbers"). For more information, read Ofcom's call costs guide.

Carers Direct online enquiries

If you have a question about caring you can ask it using the online enquiry form. A Carers Direct adviser will normally respond within 24 hours of you submitting your enquiry, excluding bank holidays.

Carers Direct webchat service

If you want to ask a question while browsing the Carers Direct website, or you need help finding information, you can use the webchat service to talk to a Carers Direct adviser live online.

The webchat service is available between 9am and 8pm Monday to Friday, and from 11am to 4pm at weekends. The webchat service is closed on bank holidays.

Language Line translation for Carers Direct

Carers Direct uses Language Line, a telephone translation and interpreting service that has access to more than 170 languages. This three-way conferencing facility enables the helpline advisers to communicate through a trained interpreter, making Carers Direct accessible to many people whose first language isn't English.

You can use the call back form to request a call with a translator at a time convenient to you. You can request to be called back in any of the 170 languages. Instructions are available in:

• Arabic ربي
• Bengali বাংলা
• Cantonese 中文
• French Français
• Gujarati ગુજરાતી
• Polish Polski
• Portuguese Português
• Punjabi ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
• Somali Soomaali
• Spanish Español
• Turkish Türkçe
• Urdu اردو

Text relay services for Carers Direct

Deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people who use a textphone can contact Carers Direct on the textphone/minicom number 0300 123 1004.

Alternatively, you can use the Text Direct service. This is the UK’s text to voice relay service. To use the service you simply type a prefix before the telephone number you want to call (18001 if you're calling from a textphone, 18002 from a telephone and 18000 for emergency numbers).

To contact Carers Direct from a textphone via the Text Direct service, call 18001. There is no charge for using this service.

For more information on text relay services, please contact 0800 7311 888 or visit the Next Generation Text Service website, which includes information on accessing the services via smartphone, tablet or computer.

Phone calls are recorded for training and quality purposes only

Care Quality Commission - checks whether hospitals, care homes and care services are meeting government standards and publishes inspection reports.

Carers Direct - information, advice and support for carers, hosted by NHS Choices.

Carers Trust - information on respite care, employment, taking care of yourself, holidays and days out, getting the most from health professionals etc – and contact details for Carers’ Centres across the UK.

Carers UK - a range of help, advice and resources for carers, including a telephone helpline, a directory of local organisations that can help carers, and a beginners’s guide to caring

United Kingdon Home Care Association (UKHCA) -the professional association of home care providers from the independent, voluntary, not-for-profit and statutory sectors. Provides a guide to finding a homecare agency.

Vitalise - a national charity providing short breaks (respite care) and other services for people with physical disabilities, visually impaired people, and carers