Community pharmacy teams in Ayrshire and Arran are now able to provide even more support to Ayrshire’s unpaid carers. This new approach to supporting this group was officially launched at an on-line event last month, and will help to identify hidden carers. For more information please speak to your local pharmacy.
Pharmacies are often one of the few points of contact for carers, and so this new approach will seek to maximise the opportunity to ensure carers are signposted to places and people who can support them. Most significantly, this includes the Carers Centres situated in East, North and South Ayrshire.
Dr Julie Mardon, Emergency Department Consultant at University Hospital Crosshouse, who led this work commented:
“The work we have done to link community pharmacies, carers centres and unpaid carers has transformed the support available. We are so delighted to be able to reach out to unpaid carers who have not previously realised they in a caring role and show them the support and resources which are available. The team have worked tirelessly and collaboratively together to make this possible.”
Fiona Robson, Joint CEO of East Ayrshire Carer’s Centre said:
“It is vital to find the hidden carers in our communities so that we can ensure they have the full support they need to live a life along-side their caring role – and pharmacies are in the heart of each of our communities so we are really hopeful that this collaboration will help us reach as many unpaid carers as possible.”
Roisin Kavanagh, Director of Pharmacy in NHS Ayrshire & Arran added:
“This project seeks to identify carers at an early stage and supporting an individual with their medicines is often the first step in a carer’s journey. Many carers will be in regular contact with one or more of the 99 community pharmacies in Ayrshire and Arran, so the community pharmacy teams are ideally placed to identify and support carers.”