Derbyshire Carers Association

Crisis Situations

What happens if you or the person you care for are taken ill?
In the event of a medical emergency requiring immediate assistance you should call an ambulance. This includes help for people who have fallen and who cannot get up again. Even if the ambulance crew only need to administer first aid you will not be charged for this service.

Doctors and dentists will provide a 24 hour "on-call" service every day of the year. If you call the usual number, you will be put in touch with the doctor or dentist who is on duty providing emergency cover at that time.

Social Services provide an out of hours 24 hour Emergency Duty Social Work Team (EDT). The EDT can provide emergency mental health assessments through referral by a GP, emergency community care assessments, emergency residential assessments and will carry out child abuse investigations. If you are ill and unable to continue to look after the person you care for, contact the EDT and ask for emergency support.

High Peak Emergency Sitting Service operates in the High Peak area only, and Volunteer Sitters will provide short term cover at home if the Carer has a medical or other emergency. This enables appropriate arrangements to be made for ongoing care with less distress for the Carer and Cared for. This is accessed in cases of extreme emergency only through Social Services or the Health Services.

24hr Crisis Support Line

Carers can access a 24 hour emergency Crisis Telephone Support Line. If you are in an emergency situation you can ring this number the crisis support line at any time for advice about what can be done about the emergency. The Crisis Support Line operated by the Derby Samaritans for DCA, is there to provide crisis support, and in particular will put you in touch with someone to talk to if things get too difficult to bear at a time when your local Area Co-ordinator is not available. Just talking things through for a few minutes really can help you to carry on, and if you cannot, back up can be sought.

Services to help avoid an emergency

Lifelines are a means of direct communication via an emergency telephone line. These cover many districts and are administered by the Council Housing Service. They provide a 24 hour alarm call receiving service. Availability can vary, and may include both council and privately owned properties.

In some council owned properties the service is accessed by, pulling an alarm cord, and this will be responded to by the housing service central control. In some areas this type of system can be installed in private properties. Where this system is not in place you will need a special alarm telephone, which will he programmed to be answered by a care service in your area. The user can also have an alarm pendant which should be worn at all times. These are very good for people who live alone and also allow you to leave the person you care for alone in the home with greater confidence, knowing there is help available if they should need assistance.

Emergency planning for Carers in Derby

In October 2007 the Department of Health launched the New Deal for Carers, which aims to provide emergency cover for unpaid carers who for reasons of an emergency or personal crisis are unable for a short period to continue to provide care.

Derbyshire Carers Association has been commissioned by Derby City Council to organise this service through our Emergency Planning Project Officer, Andrea Weatherston and her job will be focused on undertaking a Carers Assessment and on helping Carers set up a Contingency Plan to be used in case of an emergency.

Andrea has already set up Emergency Plans for unpaid Carers in Derby and would like to remind all Carers that this service is free of charge for the first 72 hours and that it will provide peace of mind for all the people involved in caring for someone. They will all know that there is a back up plan in place in case of an emergency of whatever sort.

Emergency home-based respite care is now available to all Carers, so please take advantage of this opportunity and allow Andrea to visit you and help you set up your contingency plan to be used in case of any sort of emergency. We never know when something could happen to us, but we want to make sure our cared for are looked after appropriately, when we are not there.

In order to access this service, please contact Andrea Weatherston, based at DCA Head Office. Andrea's contact details are here.

Emergency Respite Care

A team offering emergency respite care has been set up by Derbyshire County Council to help improve support for Carers. The move is in response to the Department of Health's New Deal for Carers which aims to improve support for Carers through a range of measures. The emergency respite care scheme is available to carers providing more than 20 hours of support over four or more days a week. In an emergency, care can be provided in someone's home until the situation has stabilised, through a homecare service, sitting service or direct payments.

To make sure the scheme is quickly available to all eligible carers, the county council's adult social services is now developing a form to fill out, lodging their deals together with information on the support they provide and what they would like to happen in an emergency. The form is being developed in consultation with Derbyshire Carers` Association and other carer groups. It is hoped the new form will make it easier for carers not known to the county council to access the emergency respite care service if they need it as well as highlighting what support services are available.

Emergency Home-based Respite Care is now available to all eligible carers. It is hoped the form to record emergency details will be available over the summer – more details to follow in our next newsletter.

Other Emergency Schemes

The county council's adult social services is also developing a leaflet to promote carer services and carer's assessments as well as a carer's emergency card scheme.

For more information people can contact David McGill, the new project officer overseeing the county council's commitment to delivering the New Deal for Carers across the county. David McGill can be contacted on 01629 531011.

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