Caring for carers in Cardiff

The Cardiff Carer's Information Support and Wellbeing bus - launched at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on 25 April - was designed by a skilled coachbuilder whose brief was to create a 'branch on wheels' incorporating a treatment room for complementary therapies.

The branch splashed out on the bus after being awarded £160,000 by Cardiff County Council following a successful application for a Carers' Special Grant Fund.

Branch project worker Sam Jarman drives the bus (named Primrose) to different locations around Cardiff, such as leisure centres, supermarket car parks and churches, four days each week.

Inside, the bus has been divided into two separate areas.

At the front, Sam provides information and support to carers through signposting to local agencies, and co-ordinates the provision of therapeutic treatments including reflexology and Indian head massage in the treatment room at the back.

Sam said,

'The feedback has been overwhelming.

People tell us they have been sleeping better, that the therapies have helped with stress-related ailments such as psoriasis, and that they enjoy the experience of feeling cared for instead of doing the caring.

The bus is just like a branch on wheels out in the community.'

If the facility proves successful in Cardiff, the branch will apply for more funding to extend the service to carers in the rural areas of the Vale of Glamorgan.