Dual expert carers

Older people living with frailty often experience uncertainty about how their health will change over time, making it difficult to ensure they get the right help at the right time. Family carers have been identified as important for accessing and organising this help.

This study has two aims. The first is to understand dual expert family carers’ experiences and consequent decision-making processes at a point of change in the condition of an older person living with frailty. The second aim is to facilitate the co-design of a set of guiding principles by participants, to inform a prototype tool for family carers to assist decision-making. This involved participants taking part in one-to-one interviews followed by participation in a facilitated online focus group.

If you wish to find out more about this study, please contact Richard Green.

This resource was created with participants from the Dual Experts study and refined through a co-production session with unpaid carers and unpaid carer representatives across London and the South East, to share practical tips from experienced unpaid carers for older people. We hope that this resource will support unpaid carers to be proactive in considering some of the things that can arise when caring for an older person and ways they might approach these.

• Download ‘Top tips for caring for an older person’ (PDF)