Introduction Current policy aims to enable more people to die in the place of their choice, and increase the number of people who die at home. Essential to this aspiration is the involvement of lay-carers, usually family or friends of the ill person. The importance of this role is acknowledged at a national level, however carers continue to report many unmet emotional and practical support needs. Innovative approaches are required if we are to improve the experiences of lay-carers in end of life situations. In this poster, we report on the progress of an innovative participatory research project, which is developing training for people who support carers. We hope to engage delegates in discussion about the utility of the training for their own organisations and communities.

Aim(s) and method(s) The project aims to develop and pilot an introductory training programme for supporters of carers in end of life situations, such as support workers and volunteer mentors. Participatory action research methods have been used to engage with stakeholders including carers and carer support organisations. The programme is being piloted from January 2014.

Results Current evaluation activities show the developing programme to be acceptable to a range of stakeholders. Ongoing piloting and evaluation will further test the utility of the programme.

Conclusion(s) The training programme will be publically available at the end of the project, and free to use. Participatory research methods are a useful way to engage with a range of stakeholders and to raise awareness of end of life care issues.