CPPE has developed a new floor at thelearningpharmacy.com to help pharmacy staff take care of the carers

A carer is someone who, without payment, provides help and support to a partner, child, relative, friend or neighbour who could not manage without their help. Anyone can be carer – they come from all walks of life, all cultures and can be any age. According to Carers Trust, approximately seven million people in the UK are carers: one in eight adults and approximately 700,000 young people or ‘young carers’.

Based on these numbers, on average each community pharmacy in England will be visited by 13-14 people who are carers every day. Carers UK estimates the value of care provided by carers in England to be well over £96bn per year. Examples of why someone may be caring for another person include things like chronic physical illness, frailty, long-term physical disability, a long-term neurological condition, mental health problems, dementia, substance misuse or a person with learning disabilities.

At risk

Carers are at risk of developing problems themselves such as emotional, physical, social, financial and other issues, and you can help by making them aware of the support that is available to them. CPPE has developed a new floor at theLearning pharmacy.com, ‘Supporting carers’, to help community pharmacy teams acquire the knowledge and skills to identify carers, provide support and signpost them to carer services in their local area.

Learning challenges

This online learning environment is suitable for the whole pharmacy team and no registration or log-in is required. It consists of small learning challenges, or hotspots, designed as small bites of learning lasting 10-15 minutes each. The hotspots can be completed as a team, individually or used as a teaching tool. To find out more and to access these challenges, visit: www.thelearningpharmacy.com