Gathering Insights: What we learned from health and social care colleagues

Continuing our ‘What we’ve learned’ series of blog posts, back in the summer we spent time talking to colleagues in the health and social care sector about unpaid carers. Through previous research we know that this group of people is often perceived as one of the most important in providing support to carers, when it’s done right. So what lessons could our colleagues tell us to help us improve support for unpaid carers across our region? Here are 5 key takeaways we found:

• Health and social care staff recognise the value unpaid carers have

Throughout the 50+ surveys and 15 user interviews we undertook, there was a clear sense that staff have empathy with unpaid carers and recognise the importance of good carer support.

“They are a huge safety net and if they did not do that job then the NHS / social care would crumble even further. [It’s] important to make them feel appreciated and recognised” Practice Nurse

It’s great to hear this directly from so many different professionals. Sometimes carers can feel unseen and unvalued. This data suggests that’s not the case — so how do we bridge this gap in understanding, and what difference could this make? How can we ensure carers feel seen by this support network, who clearly do recognise the vital role they play?

• Health and social care staff understand the needs carers have

Carers have told us how valuable it is to just have someone that listens to them — really listen! To ensure their voices and needs are heard. We also know that they need communication from the people who are looking after their loved one, and to feel included in the process of care, not excluded from it. This need to be heard and for people to listen to carers, was recognised across the board.

Above is a wordcloud of common words used by professionals responding to what they felt carers need and the best way to help. This is at odds with someo f the research we have from carers, who don’t always feel heard or listened to. So how can we build on this to create a bigger, better, support network for carers?

• Health and social care staff understand the barriers to carers accessing support

Carers can face many barriers when accessing support, but even recognising their support needs and having the confidence to reach out can be a challenge. They often tell us ‘I’m just a mum/dad/brother etc’ and find it difficult to identify with the term, carer as well as experience feelings of guilt, inadequacy, the list goes on. Our research revealed that professionals in health and social care understood these challenges, as our third sector partners do.

“The carers themselves have often failed to realise they are a carer, they are not registered as such at the surgery and often feel that it’s just their duty to look after their loved one ‘for better for worse’” — Local GP

How can we build on this knowledge, to give them the tools and skills to be able to help carers break down those barriers to accept the help many desperately need?

• They have very little time

I don’t think anyone will be surprised to hear that health and social care staff have very little time. They have intense workloads often in difficult situations, particularly over the last 18 months.

Also their role is usually to support the person being cared for, not the carer. Their time to check in on a carer directly is limited, particularly given the number of appointments they need to get through each shift. Their primary goals are around health and support of the person requiring care. Obviously, this can help unpaid carers — if your loved one is well looked after the strains you face can be lessened. But it doesn’t directly enable unpaid carers to seek the direct support or information they may need.

How can we provide information and tools that fit in to these busy workloads yet still ensure carers feel supported and are able to get the help they need?

• There is a lack of understanding around how best to help

This links to what we learned from third sector partners around the Carers’ Centre needs to communicate more clearly. We need to improve how and what we tell our partners as well strengthen our relationships with them to give them confidence about when or how to refer carers to our services. This is a big challenge we need to tackle moving forwards.

However it also seems to link to professionals being focussed on the person being cared for, and the time (or lack of) that they have. Their knowledge and skills don’t focus on how to help carers, which compounds their ability to help given the time they have.

How can we build on all the other insights we’ve gained and work together with our health and social care colleagues to provide them with the information and tools they need to know how best to help?

It’s been a fascinating piece of research and we’re grateful to our busy colleagues for giving us their time and thoughts. Yet these does lead to one final note of caution on what we’ve learned. The survey went out to hundreds if not thousands of health and social care professionals yet only 50 were able to fill it in. Of course, we live in very difficult times and this may very well be as a result of time pressures. But we need to be mindful that we may not have the full picture here, and be open to adding new learnings as we continue on our journey…