Monica Clarke’s stories

Monica’s stories illuminate the relationships between carer, patient and healthcare provider, focusing on risk and joined-up thinking and working.

Introduction
Monica has learned a great deal about caring during the 11 years she cared for her husband following his stroke.

A part of the team
Handovers can be critical times for patients; – it’s particularly important for ambulance crews to respect and include carers as part of the healthcare team, as they are often the only ones who know the whole story.

Whose risk is it anyway?
How do NHS organisations assess risk? When Monica has an operation on her wrist, no account is taken of her caring responsibilities…or the impact that the operation will have on either her or her husband.

Nobody told me
When Monica’s husband John has a gastrostomy, she is unexpectedly faced with having to deal with a number of different specialists for different parts of the pump … simply in order to feed him.