Carers in Crisis is a back-up scheme which helps the person you care for in an emergency, when you are suddenly unable to provide your usual support.

A 'crisis' could be anything from transport problems which delay your return home for a few hours, to more serious issues like sudden illness or an accident.

When you join, you'll be given the phone number of an emergency call centre which you can contact 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

We provide a card to carry in your purse or wallet (the size of a credit card), a key fob to add to your house keys and a reference slip to pop into a "message in a bottle" in the fridge. These all show the telephone number of the emergency call centre and your own unique reference number. No personal details are shown.

We get together with you to agree what support would be needed in an emergency. This might mean contacting a relative or arranging help from home care staff.

In an emergency, you contact the call centre and give them your personal reference number, then staff there will take action previously agreed by you.

If something unexpected happens, the card or fob will show you are a carer. The person finding them can contact the emergency call centre on your behalf and will be asked to give the unique reference number on the card. They will not be given any of your personal details by call centre staff.

It is free to join Carers in Crisis scheme.

There is no charge for support during the first 48 hours. After this, when we assess the situation, we will carry out a financial assessment for the person you care for. This may lead to them being asked to pay towards the cost of any longer term care.

Please get in touch and let us know you're interested, then we'll get together with you to explain more about the scheme and the information we need to hold.

ICE is a campaign started by a paramedic to help emergency staff quickly find who to contact. You can store the word ICE in your mobile phone address book with the number of the person you’d like people to contact, for example your back-up carer. If something happens to you, ambulance, police or hospital staff will look for the word ICE in your phone’s address book and call that person. If you have more than one person to contact in an emergency, you can list them as ICE1, ICE2, ICE3.

If your phone has a lock with a passcode, you can put ICE information on your phone’s ‘lock screen’. The PC Mag website explains how to do this.

The Carers' Centre is home to our friendly, knowledgable Carers' Support Service and can be contacted by phone or by email. The lines are usually staffed Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm.

The Samaritans offer a safe place for you to talk any time you like, in your own way, about whatever's getting to you. You can call them any time, day or night. You do not have to be suicidal and they wont judge or tell you what to do, just listen.

Call them on 116 123 (free from any phone).

Alternatively, you can pop into the local branch in Bournemouth:

1 Durrant Road
Bournemouth
BH2 6LE

They are open from 9am to 9pm.

The Retreat is a safe place to discuss your problems and access peer support. If you are strugging to cope with life, and feel yourself approaching a crisis point you can attend. It is staffed by Mental Health Professionals and Peer Specialists. It is open from 4:30pm to midnight, Monday to Sunday:

Hahnemann House
Hahnemann Road
Bournemouth
BH2 5JW