About the service
Our Carers Count Lancashire service is a free service for adults in the Lancashire area who provide unpaid help and support to a loved one due to illness or disability.
We know that being a carer can impact your day-to-day life significantly. It can be both rewarding and isolating, as well as physically and emotionally demanding. A lot can change when you become a carer – you may be unable to work, and your own health can suffer as a result.
Carers Count Lancashire can provide advocacy support for:
- Carers under the Care Act
- Issue-based, non-statutory advocacy for adult carers
Our advocates work using an ‘issue-based’ model of advocacy. This means they can support you with one or more specific issues or problems, and once these are resolved, the advocacy support will come to an end.
The advocate will always tell you when this is going to happen. They will also ask you if you would like to give feedback about how you have found the service. If you need further support at a later date, you can always get back in touch with us, although you may be supported by a different advocate.
We can support you by:
- Letting you know what your rights are and the best way to voice them.
- Helping prepare and support you in meetings both face-to-face and remotely.
- Providing information and sharing knowledge around health and social care processes.
- Signposting you to access other services that would be helpful.
- Listening to what is important to you.
- Promoting independence and empowerment to self-advocates.
- Guiding carers to explore options and possible outcomes to help inform decisions.
Areas we cannot currently support are:
- Benefits
- Employment
- Housing
- Initial complaints
Although we are unable to help you directly with these areas, we can signpost to services that can help.
“It feels like I can breathe again, thank you. I feel very supported.”
We can offer support and advice on:
