Carers IW has successfully launched a new Carers Passport, in partnership with St Mary’s Hospital and the Isle of Wight Council.
The passport enables unpaid carers to be identified to the hospital staff as part of the care team. It also enables carers to visit outside of normal visiting hours to help at mealtimes and to be actively involved in all meetings about the patient, reducing their loved one’s feelings of anxiety. The passport will also enable carers to be actively involved in the discharge process.
Katherine Harvey, from the Carers Lounge, stated that prior to the opening of the lounge, unpaid carers were often not heard. Since the introduction of the Carers Passport, unpaid carers are seen as part of the solution in ensuring that they are fully involved in the care and whilst they are a patient and need to be involved fully if a discharge home is to be successful.
Ann, whose husband was in hospital, talks of her experience:
“As a Carer sometimes your loved one’s trip to or admission into hospital is unexpected and unplanned and can prove incredibly stressful. Having had four such occasions in the last 18 months, I appreciated the girls in the Carers IW Lounge who were on hand with support, advice and generally making our stay in hospital a less daunting experience. They visited us on the ward to ensure we had everything we needed and that as a Carer I was also OK.
“By the time of our last stay of 10 days last October I had acquired a Carers Passport. As a registered unpaid Carer for my husband who has Dementia, staff recognised that my support would be really useful, me being on the ward during the daytime reduced his levels of stress with unfamiliar surroundings and enabled me to clearly convey my husband’s needs”.
The Carers Passport idea came from carers themselves, highlighting difficulties that were a particular problem whilst caring for their loved ones in a medical setting.
Excellent idea.