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Planning for emergencies

As a carer it is important to have a plan in place to help the person you care for in an emergency. This could be in case you experience a sudden illness or accident, or if you are significantly delayed getting to them.

Having a plan in place can help ease your worries if you are not able to care for the person you look after at any point in the future.

It is a good idea to put together details about the person you care for and keep it in one safe place. This should include:

  • details of the name and address and any other contact details of the person you look after
  • who you and the person you look after would like to be contacted in an emergency – this might include family, friends and neighbours
  • details of any medication the person you look after is taking and any ongoing medical treatment they receive
  • dates of appointments in a diary or calendar

Make sure you let your emergency contacts know where to find the information and keep their contacts handy, so you or someone else can get in touch with them. Update the details regularly.

Create your online contingency plan.

Carers in Crisis: Emergency back-up scheme

This is a free-to-join emergency back-up scheme that helps the person you care for in an emergency, when you're suddenly unable to provide your usual support. An emergency, or 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.

Message in a Bottle

The Lions Club International Message in a Bottle scheme is a way to store personal information that can be easily accessed in the event of an emergency. The ‘bottle’ is kept in the person’s fridge and is recognised by all emergency services.

In Case of Emergency (ICE)

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 password, you can put ICE information on your phone’s lock screen. Your phone instruction manual will have information about how to do this.

Set up your Medical ID in the Health app on your iPhone.

Add emergency information to your Android phone.

Carer's Allowance and emergencies

You can still get Carer’s Allowance if you temporarily stop caring for someone. If you cannot provide care because you’re ill or in hospital, you can claim Carer’s Allowance for up to 12 weeks.

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