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Carer Videos

1. Carer's Allowance (BSL) - Carers UK
2. Support young carers through the Richmond upon Thames Voluntary Fund
3. The Caring View - The Social Care Chat Show - Young carers
4. Young Carers Action Day 2023: Scottish Government’s message to young carers
5. Northamptonshire Carers Podcast
6. Swindon Carers Centre - Young Carers Action Day 2023
7. Mobilise helps to strengthen carer support with Tower Hamlets Carers Centre
8. Sky News - Carers struggle to find support for loved ones
9. The Lowry - Heavyweight Champion - Young Carers Action Day
10. Matthew McKenzie - Young carers action day 2023
11. Catherine speaking on the Motion on Reform of Carer's Allowance.
12. Carers Wales - 2023 Wales Carers Summit Plenary

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Matthew McKenzie's Carer Podcasts Series

1. Being patient as a carer
2. You are not on your own
3. Finding faith in yourself

Matthew McKenzie's new fictional carer stories section

1. Carer Story 1 - Providing Care by Matthew McKenzie
2. Carer Story 2 - Digging out of a hole
3. Carer Story 3 - A Family Affair
4. Carer Story 4 - Never thought it could be me
5. Carer Story 5 - Angry

Matthew McKenzie's NEW online courses for carers 
Only £2 via paypal. - Hours of content each course. WOW!

1. Carer Identity
2. Carer Networking
3. Your rights as a carer 
4. Carer Activism
5. Carer wellbeing
6. Caring for someone with mental illness (in development)
7. Online awareness for carers (coming soon)
8. Challenges of ethnic carers (coming soon)
9. Carers and stigma (coming soon)

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Matthew McKenzie's Carer Poetry Project

Click on a link to hear me read my poems. So far 60 poems have been generated. The poems will eventually be collated for my poetry book in the new year.

Latest Carer & Mental Health news items
 

1. “Important step” for Carer’s Leave Bill as it passes Second Reading in House of Lords
2. New strategy to help unpaid carers at ‘breaking point’
3. Carers and Hospital Discharge Toolkit for London Hospitals and Community Providers
4. Continuing NHS Healthcare (CHC): information booklet for individuals, families and carers
5. New group aims to unite and support carers across Milton Keynes
6. Lanarkshire Carers receive award due to their support for working carers
7. Surrey County Cricket Club and Carers Trust have join forces
8. Carers Conference a first for community heroes
9. Time made for Barnsley’s young carers
10. Have your say to support the City’s unpaid carers
11. Crossroads Care Manager to tackle obstacle race in support of carers
12. A new series of poetry workshops to support carers in the community has been launched by Oxford Brookes University.
13. Supporting Oxfordshire’s army of unpaid carers
14. Lambeth: New young carers card design competition
15. New All Age Carers Strategy set to improve support for unpaid carers
16. Dudley young carers celebrated on Young Carers Action Day
17. Research shows unpaid carers are unsure of poor nutrition warning signs
18. Young carers urged to apply for new grant scheme where they could get up to £500
19. Cost of living: Unpaid carers going without basics
20. Covid-19: Unvaccinated family carers win court declaration mandate was unlawful
21. Bromley Carers Strategy Survey 2023
22. Adults urged to give Helensburgh's young carers a bit of a break
23. Opinion: The Budget needs to address respite for unpaid carers
24. Campaign launched to give young carers their childhood back
25. Kingston University students share insight and tips for Young Carers Action Day
26. Young Carers Action Day - 15 March 2023
27. Devastating impact of cost-of-living crisis on young carers in Wales
28. Honours handed out in first Young Carer awards ceremony
29. CaSA – Charlton Lane’s new carers support group
30. End of life survey for carers
31. Unpaid carers hit by ‘spiralling’ cost of living
32. Introducing our Carers’ Clinical Liaison Service
33. Report shows decline in support for unpaid carers in England and Wales
34. Who cares about the carers?
35. Rona Dougall: Dementia strategy must ensure carers are cared for
36. Carers of adults with learning disabilities slams Cheshire East over “shameful” funding
37. Young Carers Action Day marked in the Bradford district
38. Worrying survey shows one in seven Brits satisfied with UK social care
39. How Essential Breaks Bring Young Carers Together

• February Carer & Mental Health News Updates 2023
• The importance of carer forums
• February carer forum updates 2023
• Cygnet North West Regional Carers Network Event
• Focus Group Recruitment- African-Caribbean older adults
• Review of Kingston – Real Estate Poetry Project
• Young Carers Action Day
• World Social Work day 2023
• Carers Trust 50 years of caring event

National Organisation updates

1. Carers Trust marks 50 years of caring for carers at special Old Bailey reception
2. Carers UK - Help and advice
3. Book a coronavirus vaccination if you are a carer
4. Carers UK - Join as a member
5. How to get a booster dose of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine
6. Being a young carer is not a choice; it's just what we do
7. Benefit and pension rates 2023 to 2024
8. Help with energy costs - Carers UK
9. Where to get urgent help for mental health - NHS England
10. Carers Active April - Carers UK
11. Find your local Healthwatch - Healthwatch England
12. Join Carers UK as a member
13. Give feedback on care - CQC
14. Healthwatch - Celebrating ten years of people speaking up to make care better
15. CQC - Enough talking — time to act for autistic people and people with a learning disability
16. Zero Suicide Alliance training
17. NHS England - Find a pharmacy
18. Get medical help - 111
19. NICE - medical technologies advisory committee
20. The Carer Poverty Coalition, formed in February 2023
21. CarersUK Carers online Forum
22. Social Prescribing Information Sheet for Local Carer Organisations
23. Employers for carers
24. Suicide Awareness Training
25. Find your local Healthwatch
26. Carers UK Active Facebook group
27. Carers Trust Facebook page
28. POhWER
29. SANE offers non-judgemental and compassionate emotional support.
30. NHS talking therapies
31. Find an occupational therapist - Royal college of occupational therapists
32. Carers information hub - Rethink Mental Illness
33. COVID-19 vaccine: what you need to know - Healthwatch England

Author Circle and Carer Books to read
Carer authors should try help each other.  So I have listed some who are committed to the ideals of the caring.

1. A writing prize – just for writers who are also carers
2. The Selfish Pig's Guide To Caring by Hugh Marriott
3. The Carer's Handbook: Essential Information And Support For All Those In A Caring Role by Jane Matthews
4. He Died Waiting: Learning the Lessons - by Caroline Aldridge
5. Mental Health Recognition Project - Jo Lambert Poems
6. Self-Care for Caregivers: A Twelve Step Approach Book by Diane Larsen, Marvin Larsen, and Pat Samples
7. A Carer's Odyssey: Life as Mother, Wife, Carer by Anna Chan
8. A Caring Mind - By Matthew McKenzie
9. The Long and Winding Road by Rob Frowen
10. The Special Parent's Handbook by Yvonne Newbold MBE
11. Releasing the Compassion by Annie Dransfield
12. Emo the Emotional Elf by Faye Farmer
13. The Carer's Bible by Amanda Waring
14. The Carer by Deborah Moggach
15. What I Wish People Knew About Dementia by Wendy Mitchell
16. Are You Ok In There? by Jane Lawrence
17. Tender: The Imperfect Art of Caring by Penny Wincer

Carer Events and other interests

1. Carer forums and group dates

Resources

1. Cost of Living Payment - GOV
2. Martin Lewis reveals how to get a reduction on your council tax if you have severe mental health issues
3. Homeless link
4. Beat Eating Disorders - Resource Packs for Parents and Carers
5. Carers Lewisham Facebook page (Please like!)
6. Find information and support for your mental health.
7. London Renters Union
8. Carers UK information and support
9. Council Tax / Rate Relief
10. Crisis Text Line
11. Care Quality Commission Ordering System
12. Understanding advocacy – for young people
13. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) recommendation for unpaid carers
14. Carers: help and support - Citizens Advice
15. Online Community resource for Young Adult Carers
16. Scholarship and bursary support for Carers
17. Looking after someone - information and support for carers
18. Digital skills for carers - Mobilise
19. A step by step guide to the mental health pathway
20. Free debt advice: what if I need help with my debts?
21. People who do not qualify for Carer's Allowance can still boost State Pension payments in retirement
22. Online mental health support - Qwell
23. The Advocacy Project
24. Carers services near you - Carers Trust
25. Self-Care Forum
26. Look ahead – Care, Support + housing
27. Council of evidence-based psychiatry
28. Samaritans
29. Law centre Network
30. Care quality commission
31. Cruse Bereavement Care
32. British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
33. Caring for People with Psychosis and Schizophrenia  (Free course)

1. How to get help as a young carer
2. Mental Health foundation - Racism and mental health
3. Your Voice Matters: Patient Carers Race Equality Framework
4. Mental Health of Asian American Caregivers of Family Members With Severe Mental Illness
5. Mental health initiative targets black students’ well-being
6. Intersections of Mental Health and South Asian Communities
7. We need a new approach to Black mental health
8. The Power of CommUNITY: The South Asian Experience
9. Black Maternal Mental Health Week - Toyin Adeyinka
10. Closing gaps in patient data for Black and South Asian communities
11. Mental health and race in the workplace
12. Mental Health Stigma Persists and Devastates the Black Community.
13. Black mums taking charge of mental health
14. New play explores mental challenges of growing up Black
15. Addressing Bias: How Meri Yaadain Is Supporting South Asian Carers
16. Here’s Why Bipolar Disorder Shows Up Differently In Black Women
17. Report examines the crisis challenges facing Black mental health workforce 

1. Allied Health Professions Strategy for England Easy Read Version
2. Collection: ECR 2023
3. RCSLT news February 2023: prescribing campaign, anti-racism report, and updates from around the UK
4. Orthotist of the Year
5. CSP responds to new workforce report that reveals ‘ongoing discrimination’ in NHS England
6. LGBT+ History Month, the GOsC and me
7. BIOS #PrescribingNow
8. Your February issue of OTnews
9. BDA Independent Prescribing
10. The importance of registrants looking after their own mental health
11. Music Therapy Conversations - Denise Wong
12. What is Dramatherapy?
13. Working with looked after and adopted children: complex trauma and art therapy
14. Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Mental health and NHS Mental Health news

1. Cost of cancer is damaging mental health
2. New mental health hub is taking shape
3. 7 Free Ways to Boost Your Mood if You Have Depression
4. NHS England’s StopSIM ‘betrayal’ is ‘ticking time bomb’ on co-production
5. NHS mental health services: what’s changed?
6. GMMH delivers virtual reality therapy for service users with severe social anxiety and avoidance
7. Income inequality and poor mental health: should we be focusing more on young people’s own perceptions?
8. How the benefits system impedes people with mental health problems looking for work
9. Artists bring hope and healing to mental health facilities in London
10. Is cognitive behavioural therapy the best we’ve got for depression?
11. Depression in Alzheimer's has different risk factors to depression in those without dementia
12. Community interventions for anxiety and depression: the benefits of sports, music, gardening, art and culture
13. KCL - Women with mental illness significantly less likely to seek help from a doctor when planning pregnancy
14. Homelessness and trauma: a vicious cycle
15. World Bipolar Day: Making financial and healthcare services work for people with bipolar
16. ‘I have no choice’: Staff at four mental health hospitals vote to strike
17. Mind responds to StopSIM campaign updates
18. Professor Claire Henderson delivers IoPPN Inaugural Lecture 'Listen, share, negotiate – Approaches to empower and destigmatise'.
19. Mental Health Awareness Week 2023: Dates, theme and how to get involved
20. East Yorkshire military suicide prevention group praised by PM
21. Appointment of Interim Executive Director of Clinical Transformation at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
22. £28 billion lost last year due to workplace stress 

Triangle of care / carers info - Site info from trusts subject to change.

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Bradford District NHS Foundation Trust
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust
Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust
Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Cygnet Health Care Limited
Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Devon Partnership NHS Trust
Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust
East London NHS Foundation Trust
Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation
Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
Humber NHS Foundation Trust
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust
Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust
Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Mersey Care NHS Trust
Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
North East London NHS Foundation Trust
North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust
Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust
Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust
South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
West London Mental Health NHS Trust
Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

Check out my books on caring experiences and carers