Carers First is thrilled to confirm our helpline team has been shortlisted for the ‘Helpline of the Year Award’ as part of the Helpline Awards 2022 held by The Helplines Partnership.
The Carers First Helpline, which is a first point of contact for unpaid carers, supports many carers who are at crisis point, providing information, advice, guidance and emotional support through a strength-based approach, helping carers to explore support from their relationships as well as their local community.
Our team, who are committed to improving and developing the service, have a range of experience of caring, and offer a professional, compassionate, and helpful approach to support carers. The team have also recently been working with Kura, the largest independent outsourcer of tailored customer support, to learn from its systems and processes to see how we can achieve continual improvement.
Ann-Marie Shepherd, Helpline Manager at Carers First says: “With the pandemic intensifying the caring role for many, carers have told us they have been left exhausted and overwhelmed over the last two years. In this time, our small Helpline team of Carer Support Advisers have supported 43,438 calls and answered 6,866 emails from carers.
“Our starting point is always ‘how are you?’ a question people caring for someone else so rarely hear. With 91% of carers telling us they feel listened to, and 85% of carers feeling more confident to continue in their caring role following contact with our helpline team, this nomination reflects the hard work and dedication of our team, to ensure carers have access to the support they need, when they need it.”
This year's theme of the Helpline awards; Resilience, Reconnecting and Recognition, represents the recognition and celebration of the participation and involvement of helpline teams providing information and advice; particularly honouring the challenging times many helplines have experienced over the past two years.
The Helplines Partnership is the membership body for organisations that provide information, support or advice via phone, email, text or online. It has approximately 350 members in the UK and internationally varying from large national charities to smaller local and specialist charities as well as some businesses.
The winners and runners-up will be announced at The Annual Conference & Helpline Awards Ceremony on Thursday 26 January 2023. This year the Annual Conference and Helpline Awards Ceremony will be held at the Crowne Plaza in Birmingham.
Everyone at Carers First would like to say a huge well done to all members of the helpline team in recognition for their nomination of this award: Ann-Marie, Tracy, Rohima, Asha, Areatha, Lucy, Karen, Tracey, Michelle, Luke, and Grainne.
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