Hillingdon Young Carers

Who are Young Carers?

Young Carers are children and young persons under 18 years, who provide, or intend to provide, care, assistance or support to another family member. They carry out, often on a regular basis, significant or substantial caring tasks and assume a level of responsiblility, which would usually be associated with an adult. The person receiving care is often a parent but can be a sibling, grandparent or other relative who is disabled, has some chronic illness, mental health problem or other condition connected with a need for care, support or supervision.

Young Carers impact of caring:

• Miss out on friendships because they have less time to socialise or may not feel able to bring friends home.
• They may find it difficult to talk to friends about their problems.
• Be bullied for having a ‘different’ kind of family life.
• Do less well at school than they might because of poor attendance, lateness, tiredness and difficulties in doing homework.
• Their own health may be affected.

The Young Carers project which is part of Hillingdon Carers, supports young people (aged 5-18) who live in Hillingdon and care for someone in their family home who has a health problem or a disability.

Additionally, the SPACE project supports Young Carers who are affected by a parent, sibling or other relatives’ drug or alcohol problem.

Both services offer young carers free trips and activities including a weekly youth club and residential weekends away. The projects aim to support the whole family and offer 1-1 support, advocacy and information on benefits, health and education.

www.hillingdonyoungcarers.moonfruit.com

Residents and businesses can help the Mayor’s Charity Appeal 2012/13 by making a donation, or through offers of support.
For more information please contact the Mayor’s Office, Civic Centre, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 1UW, call 01895 250763, or email mayor@hillingdon.gov.uk

From the wonder of the opening ceremony to the thrills of the sporting action, find out what will be happening where during London 2012.

www.london2012.com

On Tuesday 24 July the Olympic Torch Relay enters Hillingdon in Hayes and finishes at Hillingdon Sports and Leisure Complex, in Gatting Way, Uxbridge, before moving onto the next borough.

The Olympic torch will be spending 70 days travelling 8,000 miles around the country starting at Lands End and finishing in the Olympic stadium on 27 July 2012. There will be 8,000 torch bearers, at least half of which are expected to be between 12 and 24. Residents can share in the excitement and see the torch along the way.

For more information on where the torch will be throughout Hillingdon, visit the link below

Torch Relay Route

The Arts for Carers service offers carers the opportunity to access structured arts-based courses which allows them to take a short break from their caring responsibilities. These range from all sorts of themes from floristry, creative crafts and music appreciation.
The project is supported by the London Borough of Hillingdon Arts Service and is FREE for carers, that are registered with Hillingdon Carers.

Hillingdon Carers Arts Project

All courses funded by the LBH Arts for Carers project and provided FREE to Carers

 Contact Hillingdon Carers 01895 811206 for further information and an application form

Creative Writing

Tues 24 April, 1, 8, 15  & 22 May from 10.00am-12.30pm in Uxbridge

Write simple poetry, develop ideas for stories and write your own short stories.

Salsa Dance

Tues 24 April 1, 8, 15  & 22 May from 10.00am-12.00pm Ruislip Manor

Unwind and have fun whilst learning the steps of this extremely popular dance.

Paper Making

Fri 27 April, 4, 11  & 18 May from 10.00am-1.00pm in Uxbridge

This course shows you how to make paper in various colour/textures and how to bind the paper into special keep-sake notebook.

Water Colour Painting

Tues 12,19, 26 June, 3 & 10July from 10.00am-2.00pm in South Ruislip
Relax in a calm and supportive environment whilst learning the techniques of water colour painting.

All carers are asked to call Hillingdon Carers office on 01895 811206 to register their interest and an application form will be sent to them.

These courses are only found in the newsletter that goes out to carers registered with Hillingdon Carers.

NHS Hillingdon will be one of the first boroughs in London to pilot the new NHS 111 service aimed at making it easier for the public to access local health services when they need help quickly but it isn’t life-threatening, or when they don’t know who to call.

The expression ‘you dont’ know what you don’t know’ becomes very clearly understood when we find ourselves in new situations and expected to become experts overnight.

Handbook for carers in Hillingdon

Now is the time to prepare for the unexpected …

… carers are encouraged to use our TEMPLATE to make an EMERGENCY PLAN

For example you could have an accident and be unable to get home or you might find you need to go into hospital at short notice.

• Who would you contact to help in an emergency?
• If you have a plan for an emergency, who knows about it?
• Do you keep up to date lists of medicines needed by the person you care for?
• Where are your keys kept?
• How would someone else know the needs of the person you support?

All these details can written down in advance and kept in a safe place – it may not prevent an emergency but it could give you peace of mind. Download our template for an Emergency Plan.

The Emergency Plan Template has been developed by a group of organisations in Hillingdon that support carers:

• Alzheimer’s Society Hillingdon
• Crossroads Care Hillingdon
• Hillingdon Carers
• London Borough of Hillingdon
• Rethink

It includes suggestions made by carers who attended the Carers Conference on 8th June 2010

The Emergency Plan Template would be useful in all sorts of circumstances – it takes a bit of effort to create but then it is easy to show someone else essential information about the person you support and your individual situation.

A carer can be a husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister or friend who is providing unpaid support to someone to enable them to live at home.

Becoming a carer may happen gradually over a period of time, perhaps if you are caring for someone with a developing dementia.

It can also occur as a more sudden change in circumstances such as a hospital admission following a stroke.  This can quickly find you having new caring responsibilities.

Are you looking for help and support and aren’t sure where to go?
Hillingdon Carers is an organisation that works with the council to provide information and advice to support you, contact us on 01895 811206