Caring for a disabled person is not easy.

Physical as well as emotional difficulties can present enormous challenges for carers.

One area that presents problems is knowing how to move an individual safely. “If you do not know how to do this, you could risk injury to yourself - maybe not immediately, but over time it could lead to problems,” says Ruth Gray, carers’ activity officer with Bradford Disability Services.

“If you have a child with disabilities, for instance, you can spend years picking them up and carrying them around, but as they grow older, towards teenage years, they become heavier and problems could occur.

“The carer may have last seen an occupational therapist when the child was small, but things change a lot over time.”

Physical disabilities and conditions such as dementia may warrant the use of special equipment such as hoists to move people up and down, or flip sheets that go underneath a person to enable you to move them from side to side. We will look at the use of bath stools and other aids to make bathing easier and prevent slipping.”

To help unpaid carers Bradford Disability Services, based in Dockfield Road, Shipley, has joined with the nearby Care School to create a bespoke course. The Care School, in Atkinson Street, Shipley, provides training to care workers and personal assistants, but has adapted the Safer People handling course to be more relevant to unpaid carers than care workers.

“It is about learning how to move someone safely without hurting yourself, what equipment can be used to help you and how to get hold of that equipment if you need it," says Ruth.

“It is looking at how to deal with a fall, and how to get the person back up if they do fall, depending upon their disability."

She adds: “The course will help anyone caring for someone with a mobility issue or someone that you have to help move around. It will cover back care and moving people so that it is safe for you and for them, as well as a host of other useful information."

More often than not, there are simple steps that people can take to make sure they don't hurt themselves.

Funded by Bradford Council, the course also covers what to do in the event of a fall, how to act in the event of an emergency, how to talk to emergency services if you have to call them and how to plan for first aid situations.

“ A lot of people don’t realise that help is available,” says Ruth. “ We want people to come along and share what they know as well as learning new things. Different practices work for different people and the more people who come on the course the more ideas we will have to share.”

Past courses run by the service have attracted people of all ages. “We have helped parents caring for children, husbands caring for wives and child carers who look after their parents,” says Ruth. The latter are helped by a special service run by Barnardos,” she adds.

"Knowing you are doing something properly can bring a feeling of confidence and wellbeing," says Ruth. "It gives peace of mind. We ran the course last year and it went down really well.

"Carers are often overlooked. We often hear about people with disabilities and how they are coping, but not often about the carer support, which is a vital role played by thousands of people across the country."

Ruth hopes that this will chang with the Care Act 2014, which comes into effect in April."

Bradford Disability Services runs an Independent Living Centre offering advice on equipment and how to use it. We have open days focusing on different pieces of equipment such as wheelchairs or hoists," says Ruth. "We aim to do as much as possible to allow people with disabilities to stay in their homes. "

The course, which is free, will be held on Monday March 3 and Monday March 16, 2015 and runs from 10am till 4pm. The courses are free to all unpaid carers in the Bradford District.

*For more details contact Bradford Disability Services on 01274 594173 or visit bradforddisabilityservices.co.uk or email enquiry@disabilityadvice.org.uk