I am a carer, though I wouldn’t have labelled myself as such. Over the last 3 years I have supported three really good friends and their families during their final months, weeks, days of life, often referred to as End of Life Care. We laughed and cried together.
It was an honour and a privilege to support them and their families during those times so I was really touched by Christopher Biggin’s words on the Care Radio Pod Cast about what he has to say about the care his mother received, it brings a smile! Click here to listen to the full podcast
Until faced with becoming a carer and this often comes out of the blue; the birth of a child with a medical condition, managing disability, looking after a parent, end of life care… we carry on through our lives oblivious to what could be in store, and this is a good thing because we need to be able to live our lives too.
There are times when you just can’t face another call trying to co-ordinate overnight support, collection of another prescription or calling in sick at work and explaining there’s been another crisis. As a member of a carer’s support group I read about the most heart breaking situations where there seems to have been no support or no clear pathway to find it.
Whilst caring for my friends we navigated through a complex and confusing system of care and support involving hospital consultants, GPs, district nurses, domiciliary care agencies, occupational therapists, social services, department of work and pensions, child bereavement, relations, friends, funeral directors, registrars the list is endless. We repeated the same information over and over again. It was exhausting. So thank you Christopher Biggins for giving us those few special words.
MyLiferaft, a Smart Personal healthcare Record. It was the idea of Nicola, herself a carer, and one of the army of 6.5 million unpaid carers in the UK, most of whom, like myself don’t consider themselves carers. We are just doing what you know to be right. But we don’t have to do it alone!
MyLiferaft helps co-ordinate, support, keeping information in one central place, reducing the need to repeat.
Trickle feed information in, create reports and hand them over (e.g medications and help needed to take them, a list of likes and dislikes, or recordings of blood sugar levels) or directly share information on-line with your care circle. Elements of the app are FREE including the ability to create an Emergency Card and/or a Hospital Passport for the person you care for, vital in these times of Covid when you can’t always accompany someone to hospital.
MyLiferaft also provides a directory of resources for carers, support groups, advice on benefits etc.
