Health and Social Care

New Online Information Resource for Carers

June 16, 2015 by Linda White No Comments | Category Uncategorized

We are delighted to announce that the re-designed Care Information Scotland service is now available. We worked closely with NHS 24 and key stakeholders on the project which involved a far-reaching engagement exercise to understand what people wanted and how the service could be improved.

To give a little bit of background on Care Information Scotland – it was launched in 2010 by the Scottish Government and managed by NHS 24 as the first of its kind in the country, offering a single point of contact for care information for older people. The new service – launched in June by the Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health Jamie Hepburn – is designed for all carers, those being cared for and people seeking information about care in Scotland.

The new service caters for young carers, as well as those people who don’t regard themselves as carers at all. It is designed to act as the first point of access to all care information in Scotland. Whether it is a 15-year-old boy caring for his disabled mother after the death of his father, a young adult looking after his younger siblings or a wife caring for her elderly husband, they can all make contact with Care Information Scotland and take that first step to getting the accurate and relevant information they are looking for.

Jamie Hepburn, in his speech at Scottish Care’s National Care at Home and Housing Support Conference in June, said:

“This re-designed service provides a central point to help guide people through the maze of resources and to ensure they have access to comprehensive, accurate and up to date information, either for themselves, a relative or a friend. I would encourage everyone to visit this website to find out more.”

A whole host of organisations, such as Age Scotland, Carers Trust and the Care Inspectorate, to name but a few, have been involved in the re-design and we would like to thank them for their help in shaping a service around its users. The service has been well received within the care community with positive feedback about the “real difference” it could make to young carers especially, and how it can “help point people in the right direction.”

The Care Information Scotland helpline is available on 0800 011 3200 between 8am and 10pm, seven days a week. The online service is available at www.careinfoscotland.scot and includes video content, web chat and BrowseAloud, a speech and reading support tool which can also translate material into different languages.

Help spread the word about this new service by sharing the helpline number and online service details.

Tags: BrowseAloud, Care Information Scotland, carers, Scottish Government

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