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Age NI is the new force combining Age Concern Northern Ireland and
Help the Aged in Northern Ireland. Age NI is a member of the Age UK family.
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You may be caring for your spouse, a family member who lives with you or a friend or relative who lives nearby and helps you regularly. You may not necessarily be getting paid for caring. It would be advisable for you to check if you are entitled to benefits and whether a potential claim would affect the benefit entitlement of the person receiving care.
You may also have needs arising through your caring role. You may find it difficult to cope, or wish to take regular breaks from caring and may not know where to turn to for support. Social Services can provide you with assistance in your caring role.
Carers have a right to an assessment if they ask for one. This is called a carer’s assessment. It is triggered by contacting Social Services in your local Health Trust. You may:
A carer’s assessment will review your needs and assess what support services can be provided for you. You should be given a copy of your carer’s assessment and check that all your needs have been identified. It may be useful to think about what would benefit you as a carer. You can request a carer’s assessment even if the person for whom you are caring does not wish to be assessed. This can be carried out by a separate care manager. An assessment should consider what would support you in your caring role. This may include training, contact with other carers or emotional support.
After being assessed the Trust must consider what services (if any) can be provided to you as a carer. Health Trusts can make direct payments to carers (including carers aged 16 and 17) for the services that meet their own assessed need.
Community care assessments should be straightforward. A social worker should provide all the details you require throughout the process including information on the following:
A community care assessment should be provided in writing. This is called a care plan. Guidance on carer’s assessments state that the carer must always receive a copy of their assessment without having to ask for it. Any services provided should also be flexible to suit you and the person you care for. If you are unhappy with any aspect of your care plan, talk to the person who carried out the assessment and make sure all your needs have been identified.
If you are unhappy with any aspect of this process, you can find out how to challenge decisions in Factsheet 4.
Factsheet 3 - Carer’s assessment (PDF 219KB)
Age NI would like to acknowledge The Law Centre of Northern Ireland and The Ladies, St Mary's Parish Church Friendship Circle, Comber for their contribution to the Community Care Factsheets.
Set your location to see what Age NI offers in your local area.
Guides and factsheets aimed to keep you informed about issues surrounding home and care.
Download and share our Community Care factsheets.
Downloads
A download is a document (like a research report, a leaflet, or an application form) that can be transferred from our website to your computer. You can download a file, view it on your screen, print it, or save it to your computer.
PDF stands for ‘portable document format’.
Most downloads on this website are PDFs. We use this format to ensure that the document looks the same on everyone’s computer (website pages, by contrast, appear differently depending on how people have got their computer set up).
Computers use a program called Adobe Acrobat Reader to download PDFs. If you try clicking on a link to download a PDF and it doesn’t work, you will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader onto your computer.
The process is quite straightforward and is free.
PDFs cannot be changed. If you need to be able to type into a downloaded document (for example, if we are offering a letter template that you need to put your name on) we will provide it as a Microsoft Word document rather than a PDF. You can then download it, type into it and save it to your computer.
Downloads will open on your computer in a new browser window.
Inside this window (below all your web browser menus), there will be a toolbar with options for you to print or save the document.
Close the browser window to return to the Age UK website.
We have made every effort to make our PDFs accessible to screen readers. Here is an overview of your accessibility options available in Acrobat Reader. Please ensure that you have downloaded the latest version of Acrobat Reader from the Adobe Reader website to ensure that they are included in your version of the programme.You can use Adobe Reader to read a PDF out loud with the following shortcut keys:
You can also convert a PDF into a web page by following these steps:
You can convert a PDF document into a text file for use with other software and hardware such as Braille printers by opening the PDF and choosing ‘Save as text’ from the File menu.
Advice from NI Direct government services on support and safety in your home.
The Warm Homes scheme is funded by the Department for Social Development, to make your home warmer, healthier and more energy efficient.
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