May 2021 Newsletter - Young Carers

In this update

• Carers Week
• Emotional Health, Wellbeing and Mental Health Services
• Young Devon
• The Zone
• Livewell Southwest
• Kooth
• Mind Your Words online course
• Young Carers survey results
• Young Carers in Schools (YCiS) conference Resources
• Employer for Carers - Carers UK
• Barnardo's Young Carers involved in Food Project
• Useful links
• Calendar

Cares Week

June 7 to 13 2021

Making Carers Visible and Valued 

Plymouth City Council's Young Carers Group are excited to announce the relaunch of our Young Carers Face to Face group sessions during Carers Week from 7 to 13 June. We will now be offering session from Honicknowle Youth Centre. There will be two sessions available on Monday, June 7th and two on Tuesday the June 8th so Young Carers can participate in activities, socialise with peers and access youth workers. 

For Carers week we will take to social media each day to raise awareness, provide information to fit in with this year's theme of 'Making carers visible and valued'. Throughout the week Time 4 U and partners will be working together on various issues that impact Young Carers through a range of platforms. PCC young carers groups will be looking at 'What does being a Young Carers mean to you?' we will be asking them to reflect on what the role means to them as part of a discussion. Health and Social care are often big issues affecting Young Carers and we will be promoting Time 4 U's NHS Young Carers Health Champion and the national project she is involved with the NHS. 

We will also be talking to some Young Carers who are working and caring to find out what their experiences, challenges and thoughts are and how we can further support them. The team have also asked some of our Young Carers to share their daily experiences in 'Day in the life of a young carer,' and so raising awareness of what Young Carers experience daily.

Towards the end of the week, we will be sending out a 'pamper kit' to all Young Carers in the group containing a variety of personal care items, as part of our self-care agenda for Young Carers. Time 4 U is also launching a Padlet app which is a free online noticeboard tool that can be downloaded to phones, tablets and other devices. The Padlet enables the young carer's team to update young people and parents about events, activities and sessions as well and giving general information about Time 4 U and support services across Plymouth. 

Friday, June 11 sees us working with Plymouth's Caring for Carers focussing on how to support our older Young Carers who will be transitioning into the role of adult carers or moving on in their lives.

To finish the week and further our self-care agenda Mental Health and Wellbeing will be our focus. We will be offering online support to Young Carers who may be struggling mentally as well as offering mindfulness tips and links to local and national organisations such as The Zone, Kooth.com and marbleslostandfound.co.uk.

Emotional Health, Wellbeing and Mental Health Services

Mental Health Awareness Week took place between 10 to 16 May 2021. Some many activities and resources were shared between Plymouth City Council and partner agencies on the dedicated Plymouth Online Directory webpage.

Young Devon

Young Devon is continuing to offer community counselling sessions in the Mutley Hub/building and Wellbeing conversations over the phone during the summer break for young people aged 11-18. Referrals can be made via emailing  wellbeingenquiries@youngdevon.org calling 01752 749740.

The Zone

Young people can contact the Sexual Health Mobile by calling 07867358187. You can also email enquiries@thezoneplymouth.co.uk. The Zone current opening hours (by appointment only) are:

• Monday: 4pm - 7pm
• Tuesday: 1pm - 4pm 
• Thursday: 12pm - 7pm
• Friday: 10am - 1pm
• Saturday: 10am - 3pm 

Livewell Southwest

24/7 CAMHS telephone line available by calling 0800 9232323.

Kooth

Find details of the online support services available to young people via the Plymouth Online Directory website.

Engagement in positive activities such as:

• Prince's Trust
• National Citizenship Service
• Time4U Summer Programme for Young Carers: Details available in June 2021 Young Carers Newsletter.

What is Kooth?

Kooth.com is a Free, Safe and Anonymous mental wellbeing platform available for Children and Young people in Plymouth aged 11-18.

Young People can access:

• Magazine - Helpful Articles, personal experiences and tips from our young people and Kooth team.
• Discussion Boards - A place to start or join a conversation with our friendly Kooth Community.
• Mini Activity Hub - An interactive feature covering a wide range of mental health topics which encourage creative ways to manage wellbeing.
• Chat Service - Message us or have a live chat (see drop-in opening hours below)
• Daily Journal - Write in your own daily journal to track feelings and emotions or just reflect on how you are doing.

*All content is age appropriate, clinically approved and fully moderated*

Qualified Counsellors are available every day on a drop-in basis:

• 12 noon to 10pm on weekdays
• 6pm to 10 pm at weekends

Mind Your Own Words online course

RCSLT is delighted to announce the launch of Mind your words, a new free online course to support all those working with children and young people with mental health needs. 

This course aims to improve understanding of children and young people who have both mental health needs (or social-emotional and mental health needs - SEMH) and Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN). This is made more important during the COVID-19 pandemic, as research suggests it has influenced everyone's mental health, including children. 

This online training highlights the links between mental health and communication and outlines how professionals can work together to remove communication barriers and help these children and young people achieve their potential. The course consists of 15 modules, of which the first five apply to all settings. 

The five core modules explain what speech, language and communication needs are, what social, emotional and mental health needs are, and how to recognise them; then how they are interrelated and what are strategies you can put in place. The remaining modules look in more detail at ways you can support children and young people, including getting support from speech and language therapy, working collaboratively, modifying risk assessment and de-escalation techniques, becoming a communication accessible service and much more. 

Access this free resource

Young Carers survey results

A survey was undertaken by HYPE to understand the impact that COVID-19 and the lockdowns had had on them. The key five areas of worries or concerns were around feelings, growing up, lifestyle, relationships and health. It was evident that although the young people knew where to go for help data suggests that the barriers potentially remain in the young people accessing them. This area could be further explored. The findings showed that the work from support workers and counsellors was invaluable during this time. Moving forward we asked the young carers to look at what children's services should prioritize as lockdown eases. Peer support and activity groups that were previously widely available were hugely missed due to not being able to provide such services. A learning from this survey to take forward is around services and an enhanced digital offer. More information is required in getting out to young people especially around the online services Chat Health, Health for Teens and Kooth as they are such positive services that could be the support the young person needs at a given time. If would like to see the full report or further information, please do not hesitate in contacting Barnardo's HYPE team.

• Anthony Hill, Project Manager Anthony.hill@barnardos.org.uk
• Project workers Gemma Blackmore, Gemma.Blackmore@barnardos.org.uk, Natasha Daniel Natasha.Daniel@barnardos.org.uk Kerry Wilkes Kerry.wilkes@barnardos.org.uk

Young Carers in schools conference resources

The Carer's Trust and The Children's Society ran an Education Conference on Thursday, April 22.

Please see the young carers top tips attached. 

The only thing missing that will be added shortly is a list of Young Carer Services in your area that are not Carers Trust services.

Sessions included:

• Me/We & My Mental Health: Enhancing the wellbeing of young carers
• What steps can schools and colleges take to support young carers?
• Q&A with Young Adult Carers and Ambassador Programme review.
• Forum: Q & A session and close

Employer for Carers - Carers UK

Employers for Carers supports organisations to support their staff who are unpaid carers. You can find more information about how your organisation can become a member and the resources available on the Carers UK website. 

Barnardo's Young Carers involved in Food Project

Barnardo's Young Carer's Service has been working alongside Fotonow & Food Plymouth to offer a project focused on food equality, exploring and discussing access to food and some of the barriers in particular the barrier of young carers.

The project has supported and engaged 7 young carers aged 14-17 in virtual sessions. Despite some of the challenges of working online the young people have engaged and embraced using new ways of interacting. As the rules have relaxed the group have been able to meet face to face, which was positive all around, both staff and young people enjoyed being able to meet up once again.

Fotonow and Food Plymouth have worked incredibly hard to create something captivating and exciting whilst also working towards creating something of substance, the young people have offered some great insight into the world of food inequality and shared their thoughts openly. "It has been great to see this group try new ways of working online, using zoom and online tools to have conversations and share ideas about personal and topical food issues.

A highlight of the project was visiting the Plot on Union Street to take photos and have a meal. In June will be publishing a 'zine' to showcase their work, which we look forward to sharing widely." Lisa Howard Coordinator Food Equality Project, Food Plymouth.

The project is still ongoing at present with the plan to have a few more sessions to complete the zine and then finally to have some sort of celebration to end, as a way of reflecting on all the work the young people have done.

Calendar

• Carers Rights Day - 26 November 2021

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This page was last updated on 1 December 2022.