Young Carers Awareness Day
January 30th is ‘Young Carers Awareness Day’; the main goal of this event is to increase the public’s overall knowledge of how being a carer can affect a young person in all aspects of life. These carers are often forced to give up key parts of their childhood to ensure the wellbeing of the people who they are caring for. By improving the awareness of the challenges facing young carers, the resources and support that they receive should also increase in the future making their lives more manageable.
Children and teenagers who have to care for their parents or siblings are often forced to miss out school affecting the possibility of further education and potential careers. This isolation from their peers and lack of freedom can make caring for someone an even more stressful experience for children and consequently affecting their development. From research carried out last year, it has been found that approximately 1 in 5 children in secondary school in England are a form of carer with almost a third being responsible for some manner of caring.
Centrobed have several products that can help support young carers and the people they are caring for improving the quality of life for both of them.
One of the most common problems people can face is getting safely in and out of bed, needing to rely on the help of someone else. Needing to regularly help someone with bed transfers can put a great deal of strain on a person’s body, particularly the back over time. The Nile is an electric leg lifter that is simple to set up and securely attach onto a wide range of beds including hospital beds and divan beds with its universal fittings. Once attached, the Nile is simple to operate with an easy to understand handset smoothly lifting the legs until the pad is flush with the mattress making it easier for the patient or carer to move their legs onto the bed. The standard Nile has a 25 stone weight limit but there is also a bariatric version available that has a wider pad and can hold up to 50 stone. By using the Nile getting in or out of bed can become a simpler, less stressful experience for both carer and patient.
The Arctic is a versatile turning bed that can significantly reduce the extent of manual handling required to care and reposition someone in bed. The Arctic is made bespoke to the client’s own physical measurements and specific needs ensuring that the profiling and turning options work effectively and that they fit comfortably within the bed. The Arctic’s profiling and turning features are all operated via easy to use handsets. For any young carer who struggles lifting and turning someone in bed, the Arctic handsets can greatly reduce or outright eliminate any need for manual handling, reducing the stress of both patient and carer. A significant issue that any carer can face is supporting people who need care overnight, this could be breathing difficulties, discomfort or being unable to move or turn by themselves. This is where one of the most notable options the Arctic has is able to help; this turning bed can come installed with automated turning. This feature allows the client and carer along with the advice from our staff to decide on the movement settings.
For people who are heavily dependent on others for care and mobility, the Timor chair bed can help facilitate greater movement and smoothly transitions someone from lying down to sitting up to a standing position. By using the Timor, people do not need to rely on carers to as great of an extent, being able to sit down, get in and out of bed with little to no assistance. For young carers, this can give them more freedom and time to spend with friends, family or at school allowing them to have a more typical childhood.
