Carers Community of Experience

The Social Care theme of the Applied Research Collaboration Kent Surrey Sussex (ARC KSS) is pleased to be hosting a Community of Experience bringing together people across the region who are interested in supporting and improving the outcomes for Carers, and those who support them, through research.

The event will be interactive and will be of interest to carers, carer support organisations, colleagues from health and social care, the VCSE sector, commissioners and researchers from our universities.

Research priority

Last year, researchers from ARC KSS consulted with a wide range of stakeholders, including people receiving care, unpaid carers, paid care workers, social workers, commissioners and voluntary sector partners. The aim was to identify regional priority topics for our research activity in adult social care. One of the emerging priority topics was research into how we can better support the significant number of people who provide unpaid care to family and friends who are older, living with a disability or are seriously ill.

During this event, we would like to present and discuss two areas that emerged as key issues:

• The challenges for the identification of carers, and

• Carers experience of strength-based approaches to care provision

This will then inform the research study that we will take forward with the support and involvement of partners.

We are delighted that we will be joined at the event by two carers, Karin Webb and Janice Clark, who will share their knowledge and experience.

Further info

This Community of Experience is organised by the Social Care theme of ARC KSS and led by Dr Jolie Keemink (Research Fellow) and Rebecca Sharp (Implementation Lead).

If you would like to get in touch or find out more, please contact our Research Coordinator Rianne Dubois: r.i.dubois@kent.ac.uk