Carer breaks are not for providing replacement care for your loved one e.g. support with medication, washing and dressing – or for providing care in emergency situations. Please contact us if you need this type of support.
Carer breaks can provide a personalised, flexible break from caring. They can help you to have time for you. A break should make a positive difference to you, as a carer, in one of the following ways:
- Improving your physical and emotional wellbeing.
- Giving you opportunities to have a life outside of caring.
- Helping you be more able to sustain your caring role.
- Enabling you to take more control of your life.
This support is designed to give you, as a carer, a break. These breaks are for adult carers, who are providing necessary care for someone over 18 years old.
Your break might involve you:
- Having time to yourself.
- Being able to go out into the community.
- Taking time away from your caring role.
- Doing activities that you would otherwise find difficult to do because of your caring role. This could be a whole day trip with the person you care for.
- Being able to have time together as a whole family.
To enable this to happen we can provide care for the person you care for in the home or community. This may include support for the person you care for joining you in an activity
Your carers break might be combined with, or topped up with, other support if needed. Or your break could be instead of, or as well as, other support.
While carer breaks are not provided to help you with household tasks, if you need support with these please contact us. We can help you with accessing support that is available with tasks such as shopping, prescription collection, gardening, or pet walking.
How to be referred for a carer break
Referrals are made through Carers Matter Norfolk.
- You can contact us by calling or signing up for support using the form you can access via carersmatternorfolk.org.uk and your referral will then be picked up by a Family Carer Practitioner.
- An adviser will discuss your needs as a carer with you*. You will also be put in touch with the appropriate people to support you.
- If a carer break is suitable for you, you will be referred to Caring Together**, who will contact you to arrange for one of their team to come out and discuss how best to support you. They will also discuss details of the break with you at this stage, including the date and time. Other family members can be there for this session so they are involved, if you wish.
- They will discuss the planned break, time and date with you, and talk about what is needed and possible. As well as a care plan they will also produce a risk assessment.
Examples of carer breaks
These are examples of how a break could be used.
A carer being able to rest at home
You want a day at home resting. The break involves a care worker taking the person being cared for out for the day. Both you and the person you look after benefit from this.
Family events
A care worker attends a family event to give support so both you and the person you care for can fully enjoy and relax at the event. This allows both you and the person you care for to attend an event you wouldn’t otherwise have been able to do together. All family members benefit.
Help for a carer attending a group or course
Regular breaks for a short period of time, so you can go to a carer support group, training course or other regular activity. This could, for example, be monthly for three to four hours.
Holidays
Care workers can provide breaks for a few days so you can have a holiday. This could also involve the care worker going on holiday with you and the person you care for to give support.
Carer breaks are not used to help you attend medical appointments or cover if you are unable to carry out your caring role for health reasons – support is available in these situations. Please contact us to find out more.
* At this stage other types of support will also be considered and discussed with you.
** Caring Together are a Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered homecare provider. See caringtogether.org/homecare