We marked Carers Week (11-17 June) this year with our first ever Carers Conference on 14^th June, to coincide with the anniversary of our strategy to make sure that carers are well supported and at the heart of what we do.

We launched our ‘community of practice’ at the conference, so that we can share learning and best practice. We also heard from our teams who are doing some great work with carers, including running support groups, workshops and making service improvements from carers feedback.

Oxford Health’s Chief Executive Officer, Stuart Bell, and Chief Operating Officer, Dominic Hardisty, attended the conference along with staff, carers and representatives from our local carer organisations.

Attendees also heard Naomi Venables powerful story of being a carer for her daughter and their journey through Oxford Health’s services, with many questions and discussion afterwards.

Our Support, Training and Recovery Systems (STARS) service gave an insightful talk, with former service users who have experienced personality disorder providing training to help make sure that carers are at the centre of what we do.

Many local carers organisation were on hand to share information and advice, with Carers Oxfordshire speaking about their new Primary Care Carers Service.

All attendees who completed an evaluation survey found the information at the conference useful, and/or felt that they had gained information that would have some applicability to their work. There were requests for more real-life carer stories and more interactive sessions and we’ll take this on board for our future programme of carer-related events.