Co-design workshop with young adult carers and health & social care professionals

“Other people can try to understand, but until they spend a day actually having to go through what we go through, they won’t really understand.” - Young adult carer

We are calling all GPs, nurses, counsellors, and other health and social care professionals working in Lambeth

The young adult carers of Lambeth would like to invite you bring your expertise and participate in a 2 hour co-design workshop asking the question:

What would it take for young adult carers in Lambeth to have a full life of their own and be able to continue with their caring role?

Over the past few months, we have been hearing young adult carers’ (aged 16 - 25) stories and experiences. We’ve been working with them to understand what could improve services for them in the borough.

In this session, we would like to

• share some of the stories and insights collected

• share what it feels like to be a young adult carer

• explore the themes Aspirations, Resilience & Wellbeing, and Relationships

• work with you to understand what the implications of these insights are for your practice

• imagine what different and better could look like, and what the barriers to change might be

• work with you to come up with approaches or changes that could be tested

Why get involved?

Young carers (16-25) are in a moment of transition into adulthood. This brings practical challenges (the support they are entitled to may change) as well as potential life changes (time to focus on their own futures). Every interaction with informal carers is a missed opportunity. Failure to effectively integrate them into care arrangements for patients is a failure of care.

We would like to work with you because we believe that real impact will only be achieved if we focus on the transformation of front-line practice.

The care provided unpaid, by the nations’ carers is worth an estimated £119bn per year – considerably more than total spending on the NHS. (www.carersuk.org, Facts about carers 2014)

Email saskia.baard@innovationunit.org with any questions or suggestions.