Derbyshire Carers Celebrate Nomination for National Award
The Derbyshire Carers Association‘s (DCA) ‘Carers Clinics’ project has been runner- up for second time at a prestigious national award on the 23rd November.
Each year the Health Service Journal Awards (HSJ) attracts around 2,000 applications from across the UK. To be shortlisted and then win is a considerable achievement and a recognition that Derbyshire is firmly on the map in terms of carer awareness and support.
The HSJ Awards offer a chance to come together as a community, celebrate achievements and how people have transformed patient care. Created in 1981, the awards are the largest celebration of excellence in UK healthcare, highlighting the most innovative and successful organisations, people and projects in the sector.
Since the launch of the award nominated Carers Pledge project in 2014 Derbyshire Carers Association have been working in closer partnership with GP Surgeries and other organisations, encouraging them to reach out to carers in their own organisations and within the community.
Following the success of the project it was recognised carers would benefit from a more flexible and accessible service from DCA within their own GP Surgery – and that’s where the Carers Clinics come in.
Many carers visit their GP regularly so Carers Clinics allow our support workers to meet carers at a time and place convenient to them. Carers can contact their surgery to book an appointment to talk about their caring role, have a carers assessment and potentially access their carers personal budget.
Currently 18 GP practices host Carers Clinics each month currently being delivered in Amber Valley and soon in South Derbyshire. These include Somercotes Medical Centre, Park Surgery, Whitemoor MC, Ashbourne Surgery, Ripley Medical Centre and Parkside Surgery to name just a few. (All surgeries are listed on the DCA website). Ultimately DCA aim to roll the scheme out across the County and Derby City in the near future.
Due to the success of these initiatives this year Derbyshire Carers are down to the last 7 in the HSJ ‘CCG & Local Authority Integrated Commissioning for Carers’ award category.
DCA CEO, Narinder Sharma said, ‘What an achievement! This is a welcome recognition for DCA, our partner surgeries and the initiatives that we all work so hard to introduce. The benefits to the lives of Carers though our Carers Clinics are very real, to be runner-up for such an impressive award is great news for Carers and for Derbyshire as a whole.’
A DCA Support Worker added, ‘we have increased the carers identified in a single GP surgery by over 800%! The clinics champion the vital work carers do and recognise the need for” talking time” for carers. It is a wonderful example of joint working where the lives of carers have been improved by the delivery of a local service.’
For information on how your GP Surgery can get involved please call 01773 743355 or email info@derbyshirecarers.co.uk
Click to view the shortlist for 2016.