Supporting Professionals to Identify & Support Carers

We work with professionals across South Tees to help them identify unpaid Carers and ensure they receive the right support at the right time.

Who this page is for

This service is for professionals who work with unpaid Carers, including:

  • GP practices and primary care staff
  • Social care and allied healthcare professionals
  • Community and voluntary organisations

What We Offer

Training & Awareness
We provide training sessions to help professionals:

  • identify unpaid Carers
  • understand Carer needs and challenges
  • improve signposting and support

Advice & Guidance
We offer support to help professionals:

  • identify hidden unpaid carers on the practice population list so they can be added to the Carer's Register
  • have informed conversations
  • connect Carers to local services
  • formulate Carer contingency plans
  • achieve Carer Friendly GP Practice status
  • educate, raise awareness, and become Carer Ambassadors
  • identify employees with caring responsibilities and offer appropriate support

Working Towards Carer-Friendly Services
We support organisations to become more Carer-aware and inclusive in their approach.

Becoming A Carer-Friendly GP Practice

We support GP practices across South Tees to become more Carer-friendly and better identify and support patients with caring responsibilities.

Many Carers do not recognise themselves as Carers, meaning they can miss out on vital support and guidance. By becoming a Carer-friendly practice, you can help ensure Carers are identified earlier and offered the right support at the right time.

We work with GP teams to:

  • Improve the identification of unpaid Carers
  • Raise awareness of Carer needs across staff teams
  • Provide training and guidance for frontline staff
  • Support better conversations with patients about caring roles
  • Strengthen referral pathways into local Carer support services

The impact of a Carer-Friendly approach

For Carers, this means earlier access to support, health checks and vaccinations, alongside improved physical and emotional wellbeing, greater confidence in their caring role, and reduced risk of stress and crisis. For the people they care for, it helps ensure more consistent, informed and safe care, greater reassurance, and better involvement in care planning.

For GP practices, it supports earlier identification and registration of Carers, making it easier to offer preventative care and targeted interventions. This can lead to improved patient outcomes, reduced demand on services, and more effective, joined-up care across the practice.

If you are a GP Practice within South Tees and interested in working towards becoming a Carer-Friendly GP practice, please contact Susan Lee, Primary Care Coordinator, at Susan.lee@teessidemind.org.uk.

Becoming A Carer Ambassador

Carer Ambassadors are professionals who have a passion for improving pathways and services for unpaid Carers and loved ones.

Our ambassadors promote the role of the unpaid Carer throughout the workplace and in communities to ensure colleagues are upskilled and recognise the importance of an unpaid carer.

All Ambassadors are supported by our dedicated team and have access to wider Carer services. 

Will you join us and improve Carer support across Teesside?

Resources you may find useful

We work alongside and collaborate with other organisations including We Care You Care to ensure everyone has access to the most current information and resources.

You can find out more about Carers and how to identify them here.