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Guide to Carer Breaks
Guide to Carer Breaks – Humber and North Yorkshire 2025
This document has been coproduced by Local Authorities within the Humber, Coast & Vale Integrated Care System as part of an Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF) to support innovation in adult social care.
To help you make decisions about taking a break, the guide is divided into two parts.
- Part One discusses the different types of Carers breaks available to support you, and
- Part Two provides ideas for how best to support the person you are caring for while you take a break, making your Carers break a reality.
This guide is designed to support Carers of all ages, including young Carers, Parent Carers, and Carers of adults. Practitioners can also use it as a tool when helping Carers understand and navigate the process of arranging a break. See also the additional resource directory for links to useful websites for advice and support.
A Carer is someone who provides unpaid care to a friend or family member who due to illness, disability, mental health problems and addiction, is unable to manage without their support.
Carers can be of any age, and can include children, adults, family, sons, daughters, parents, or friends and neighbours. Carers undertake a variety of roles and responsibilities include:
- Reminding someone or prompting them to complete tasks, such as taking medication.
- Helping with everyday tasks, such as getting out of bed or organising appointments.
- Personal care, such as bathing.
- Emotional support.
Caring for someone can be both enriching and challenging. As a Carer, it is essential to take time for yourself to rest and recharge to promote your physical and mental health and prevent burnout. By taking regular or one-off breaks from your caring role may help you reset and continue. By enabling Carers to plan breaks in advance and to discuss them with families and professionals it aims to prevent crises and reduce the need for a reactive response.
A break is very personal and can mean different things to different people. A break can strengthen and sustain informal caring relationships and enhance the wellbeing of Carers and the people they support. This may be achieved through a service, an activity or the purchasing of an item / equipment.
