Carers Emergency Response Service – Offering back-up support to carers
Cheryl Jones, CERS Outreach Manager has provided the following information which we would ask carers to read – this is an invaluable service that could be very beneficial for planning your care arrangements.
The Carers Emergency Response Service (CERS) is the emergency service for Carers, offering FREE back up support to Carers for 48 hours or 72 hours on a Bank Holiday.
CERS is now accepted as a major part of care delivery in Birmingham, working closely with many other agencies to ensure that when an emergency happens, we can provide a complete service to support the Carer and the person they look after. Taking the pressure off in a time of need is what we are here for. Carers have to be registered to access the service, and then support in an emergency is just a phone call away.
We have now had over 4000 people wanting to register, and since ‘going live’ in April 2009 we have had 450 emergencies….so far! Sometimes our Care Staff have needed to be there for the whole 48 hours, whilst on other occasions we have just popped in two or three times a day as necessary, or got someone up in the morning and to bed at night. There have been times when we have given a bit of extra support to a Carer who has an illness or injury which means they can’t complete their usual tasks. One lady couldn’t carry out personal care as she had hurt her arm, and a Young Carer had an operation and needed us to help with a hoist. There have been many occasions when a Carer has been rushed into hospital, and fortunately ten occasions when paramedics have found our card on a Carer in an emergency and called us.
On many occasions in emergency situations, we have negotiated with ’Social Care and Health’ to get care packages increased, or to find respite accommodation. We also work closely with NHS hospital discharge teams to make sure that a Carer being discharged from hospital gets the extra support they need whilst they are recovering. Before CERS existed a Carer would have had to sort all this out themselves, but now we can do it, and it’s all FREE!
One Carer who used the service in an emergency said “I found the service excellent from start to finish. I wouldn’t have known who to turn to if CERS hadn’t been there. The support we received was caring, professional and very respectful. They made a stressful situation a lot less fraught and I can’t thank you all enough”. Another Carer summed up how CERS should be viewed “It’s like an insurance policy, you hope you’ll never need it but it’s there if you do”.
Please contact 0845 468 1338
Email:info@cers.org.uk
Website:www.cers.org.uk
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