Help and support for adult family or friend carers

Who is a carer?

Supporting someone else is sometimes called caring. You are a carer if you provide (unpaid) support and care for someone who has an illness, disability, mental health problem, or addiction. Carers can provide all sorts of emotional and practical support.

If you're over 18 and look after a partner, family member, or friend with an illness or disability, you can ask for a carer's assessment, which considers the impact the care and support you provide is having on your own wellbeing and important aspects of other aspects of your life. We look at how caring affects you and the sort of help you may be eligible for.

Plymouth's Caring for Carer service

Improving Lives Plymouth is commissioned by the council to deliver Plymouth's Caring for Carers service. This includes:

• providing information and advice
• supporting you with carer assessments
• running drop-in and support groups
• organising leisure and social activities
• running workshops and training events
• Carers Passport Card
• sending regular newsletters to keep you informed

Caring for Carers can be contacted by emailing caringforcarers@improvinglivesplymouth.org.uk or calling 01752 201890.

How to register as a carer

Registering as a carer is simple, and all you need to do is complete the online form.

After you submit the form, a member of the Caring for Carers Team will get in touch to make sure you get the information, help, and support you need.

How to ask for a carer's assessment

You can ask for an assessment when you register as a carer.

A carer's assessment will look at the different ways caring affects your life and work out how you can carry on doing the things that are important to you and your family. It will cover your caring role, your feelings about caring, your physical, mental, and emotional health, and how caring affects your work, leisure, education, wider family, and relationships.

Your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing will be at the heart of this assessment. This means that you will be able to tell the person undertaking the assessment how caring for someone is affecting your life and what could make things better for you and the person you look after.