Making Carers Count

Making Carers Count is a national, multi-partner, Carers Trust funded programme aiming to identify and support informal carers who are less likely to engage with carer support services. Here in the South East, Care for the Carers is partnering with Carers Support West Sussex and the Carers Centre for Brighton and Hove to focus on ethnically and culturally diverse communities across all of Sussex.

Community involvement is a crucial component of this programme of work. In East Sussex, our Inclusion and Development Worker, Teri Sayers-Cooper, has been accessing communities to spread the word that people who look after someone who couldn’t cope without their help, can receive support from our team. This is regardless of their ethnic or cultural background. Teri, a former carer herself who has worked across diverse communities for almost 30 years, has grown to understand that, within different cultures, the role of carer is often unrecognised and / or is regarded as an expectation within. Sadly, people are sometimes not surrounded by the community network that would normally support them, so it is Teri’s role to introduce people to the notion that a supported carer can better support those that they care for and that the wellbeing of the carer is crucial to the wellbeing of everyone.

Other strands we have been working on include:

• Creative specialist tools, such as translated materials that help people to understand that they are carers and tell them about the support that we can provide

• With our cross-Sussex reference group, designing and delivering specialist training for health and social care practitioners on the different needs of people from ethnically and culturally diverse communities
• Culturally specific and / or language matched counselling support
• Holding our own events and supporting other inclusive events with people from across all backgrounds, reminding us that, regardless of culture, people who look after others can benefit from our support and from sharing with others in a similar situation.

If you are supporting someone who could not do without your help, we are here to support you.

For Professionals

If you are a professional, find out about how you can support carers with our Carer Awareness Training

If you support a carer, please refer to us, using our Professional Referal Form