Emergency Carer’s Card

 

carers emergency card

Islington Carers Hub can support you to join the Carers Emergency Card Scheme.

The Carers Emergency Card is for people who care for someone with a long term health problem or who is physically disabled.

It’s not currently available to mental health carers, though we are looking into this for the future.

The card can give you peace of mind that the person you care for will not be left without care if you have an emergency.

The Emergency Card itself is size of a credit card so you can carry it with you. On the card is:
CARERS NAME
YOUR UNIQUE ID
THE NUMBER YOU CALL TO ACCESS EMERGENCY CARE SUPPORT

What does the Card provide?

Carrying an Emergency Carer’s Card means that if the Council are told you’ve had an emergency, they will tell two people that you have nominated about the emergency so that these people can step in. If the person you care for has higher needs, the council will provide the necessary care until the emergency is over.

How can I get one?

To join the Scheme please contact Islington Carers Hub, who may complete a carers assessment with you which includes a section called ‘Planning for Emergencies’. For this, you’ll need the following information:

  • The name and contact details of 1 or 2 people who have agreed to be your nominated helpers in an emergency (including whether they hold keys to the home of the person you care for)
  • If you don’t have anyone to nominate, Social Services can step in in an emergency.
  • Any details your nominated people or Social Services may need to know about looking after the person you care for, such as
  • Where are the medicines kept?
  • Does the person speak English? Or take a long time to answer the door? Are there other communication problems? Food allergies?
  • Right down to “Don’t let the cat get out!”

The assessments are done on behalf of adult social services directly on their system, so they may contact you to discuss details of the level of emergency support the person you care for would need. They’ll then put all that information down on the confidential Telecare database who will then issue your application with a unique reference number and instruct Islington Carers Hub to produce the card to you with the relevant emergency contact details.

Then, if you have an emergency, you or someone else can call the emergency number on your card, quote that reference number and Social Services will take care of the rest.

For more information or if you have any questions, get in touch with us on 0800 085 1141 (FREEPHONE) or 020 7281 3319 or email info@islingtoncarershub.org.