New Carers Week research finds most people unprepared for their caring role

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust has developed a Community Urgent Care Team with a strong multidisciplinary focus on rehabilitative care which includes nursing, medical, physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy.

The new service 'Hospital at home' provides active treatment by health care professionals in the patient's own home for a condition that would otherwise require acute hospital in-patient care.

The Community Urgent Care Team has developed an ambulatory care centre at Meadowlands to improve access for falls services and comprehensive geriatric assessment as a quality alternative to Emergency Department attendance /admission.

This dedicated centre is a first step in providing comprehensive and rapid specialist assessment, advice and intervention to those elderly people in need of most help and signals a decisive shift towards expert medical and community support at home.

The team is working with three GP practices as first responders and 36 patients to date have been provided with alternative acute care at home.

Carers from Northern Ireland and across Europe were involved in a project co-ordinated by Joe Duffy, Lecturer in Social Work at Queen's University to look at the training of Social Work sudents.

This video features some of the carers and service users takling about their experience of involvement and the core skills needed by social workers.

Watch the video

After 13 years, Jim Gibson steps down as chair of Larne Carers Group.

The Independent Living Fund is closing in March 2015. If you are looking after someone supported by the Independent Living Fund, the ILF User Group would like you ito get involved in shaping the decision about how to support the Fund users after ILF ends.

The Patient and Client Council is conducting a survey into people's experience of the treatment and care of their long-term pain.

The Department for Work and Pensions has accepted that the size criteria used to determine housing benefit discriminate unlawfully against disabled children who cannot share a room because of their disability and has dropped its appeal to the Surpeme Court.

Government and employers must step-up support for families as survey reveals shocking impact of caring on workforce.

The BBC is reporting that following pressure from campaigners, Welfare Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has instructed officials to "look again" at how the "bedroom tax" will affect disabled people.