28 ACTIVE CARERS MEET AT MARCH 27TH WORKSHOP AT CEIMH

     This very lively and interactive event started with an informative presentation by our old friend and colleague Simon Foster in his capacity as Carer Involvement and LINks Lead for CSIP West Midlands.  He updated the delegates on the latest developments regarding the introduction of LINks, which will provide a mechanism for carer (and user) involvement in each local authority area of the region.  A copy of his presentation is available on request and the schedule of LINks co-ordinators for each area is also available on this website.

     After lengthy discussion on this topic, the programme moved on to the work of the BME sub group of CiP on ‘Involving BME Carers’.  Jacqui Miller from CSIP’s Race Equality delivered a very informative talk on the general principles of the national Delivering Race Equality programme and then on the work of the sub group in promoting BME carer involvement.  Again lengthy discussion followed, particularly around the BME Carer Education project.  Jacqui’s presentation is also available on request.

     Following lunch, Sally Darby gave the delegates an impromptu briefing on her work on the Regional Steering Group for Personalised Budgets: this is an enhancement on the current Direct Payments policy, which has helped Sally so much in her caring role.  Such was the interest in this topic that it was agreed that this should be a major topic for the next Active Carers Workshop.

     With time running short, Peter Woodhams gave just a brief summary of recent developments in promoting Carer Involvement in Commissioning and some good practice examples of this have now been included on the CiP website. A copy of Peter’s full presentation is also available on request.

With the number of delegates being less than 30 it was possible for the chairs to be laid out in a ‘U’ shape and this undoubtedly helped the event be highly interactive. To obtain a copy of any of the presentations referred to above - contact us

SNIPPETS

• Members may be interested in a new website www.mentalhealthforum.net –“the friendliest place on the web to meet and discuss anything related to mental health.”  It is run by volunteers seeking to develop a network of local online forums, started by people in their locality, which will enable their members to make contact with other local people.  There is as yet no significant activity in the West Midlands but please let us know if you have any ideas about how CiP might work with them.