There is no such thing as perfect safety. However, we can do our best to prevent accidents from happening and prepare ourselves to respond accordingly when they do.
Safety in the Home
There are lots of ways to improve your home and personal safety, from contacting your local fire service for a fire safety assessment to making sure you don’t take risks that could lead to falls or accidents. For more ideas, take a look at Age UK’s Home Safety Checker. It’s specifically designed for older people, but contains lots of useful information.
Technology and Equipment Support
We live in a maze of technology to help with everything from getting up in the morning, to relaxing late at night. There is also a whole range of technology focused specifically on making your role as a carer easier to handle.
With so much technology to choose from, it can be a daunting and time consuming task to find what technology or equipment will best suit you. Carers UK come to the rescue with their guide to Technology and Equipment Support for Carers, including their own app Jointly, designed to help you share and organise a circle of caring for the person you are looking after.
With so much technology to choose from, it can be a daunting and time consuming task trying to find what technology or equipment will best suit you. Carers UK yet come to the rescue with their guide to Technology and Equipment Support for Carers, including their own app Jointly, designed to help you share and organise a circle of caring for the person you are looking after.
Carers UK also provide information on the following:
Everyday Technology
Creative ideas on how to use a just little bit of technology to your advantage every day.
Equipment
Even the most basic caring equipment in the home can provide you with reassurance and even give more independence to the one you are looking after.
Technology and Care Services
For more specific help with the caring role itself, from complex monitoring devices to simple information apps.
Moving People Safely
If you are caring for someone with restricted mobility, whether it is an adult or a child, it is important that you feel comfortable, confident, and in control when assisting them with movement.
Knowing how to move someone safely will reduce stress for you as the carer, but also make movement a much less traumatic experience for the one you care for.
Check out our Caring for Your Back section in Wellbeing to find out more about assisting someone safely.
This section also includes some of our top tips to manual assistance, whether that’s with or without specialist equipment. Most Carers support organisations offer training for Carers and it’s often free, Contact your local Carers Centre or your local council to find out more.
Preventing Accidents
For many of us, caring is not something that we planned for or have received any sort of training in. Many organisation provide free training for carers in a variety of different locations, times, and subjects.
Attending just a couple of Carer-specific training sessions can prevent accidents and help you feel more confident and comfortable in your caring role. To find out about other training courses, contact your council or local support organisations.
If you are feeling rundown, unwell, or stressed, you are more likely to make a mistake or even cause an accident that could potentially harm you or the person that you care for. It is therefore important to make sure that you, as a Carer, feel happy, safe, and healthy as much as is possible in order to prevent accidents from happening.
Please see our Wellbeing section to find out more about how to look after yourself when caring, getting support in your role, and why this is so important in other ways too!
Getting the Support you Need
Carer’s Assessment
If you care for an adult and caring has a major impact on your life, you can talk to your local Carer Hub or local authority about the help and support you may need across all aspects of your life, including your work, this is called a Carer’s Assessment. This can happen even if the adult you care for is unwilling to accept help. If the person you care for is not receiving any care services, they may benefit from having their own assessment. You can arrange this by contacting the local authority for the person you care for.
Keeping You Safe from Harm
Caring for a loved-one can be incredibly rewarding, but without sufficient support from family or professional services, it can also become very stressful and lead to harm to yourself or the person you care for.
Types of Harm:
Harm can be unintentional or deliberate. By harm we mean regular or consistent harm, not a single accidental incident. Harm can take many shapes, including physical, emotional, psychological or sexual harm, financial harm or theft, domestic violence, self-neglect, slavery or forced servitude
What to do if you feel unsafe:
Sometimes it is difficult to acknowledge that you don’t feel safe, especially if this is due to the words or actions of the person you care for. You may: • have got used to it; • think they do not mean it or they don’t know what they’re doing; or • worry that you may be separated from the person you care for – it is always better to reach out for support.
What to do if you are worried you might harm the person you care for:
If you are feeling overwhelmed and are worried that you might cause harm to the person you care for, or suspect someone you know is being, or could be, harmed, make immediate contact with your local Social Care team.
Getting Additional Help in Your Caring Role
As a Carer you may reach a stage where you think that you or someone you care for needs additional support. If you feel you can no longer continue in your caring role without additional support, please contact your local Social Care team.
