Category Archives: ukcuts
Families fear respite care cuts
Big issue: Families fear respite care cuts
Warwickshire County Council plans to cut £1.7m from its budget could leave carers at breaking point, reports Mary Griffin
“My whole world revolves around Aleisha,” says Rebecca Page. “It has to.”
Rebecca’s life plan has changed dramatically since her daughter Aleisha was diagnosed with severe autism at the age of three.
Seven years on, Aleisha is never left alone, needing one-to-one attention 24 hours a day.
Rebecca, who lives near Southam and left her career as a specialist teacher to become a full-time mum, says: “She headbangs until she’s stopped, she kicks and punches and she is extremely active, climbing up furniture.
“She’s a physically fit 10-year-old who functions somewhere between a baby and a two-and-a-half-year-old.
“She has no language but communicates through Makaton (a system of signs and symbols).
“You can’t turn around from her to run a bath. If you’re not holding on to her she’s gone.
“I can only sleep when she sleeps and then it’s like sleeping with a newborn – that half-sleep where you’re always listening out.”
Five million carers do not have ‘control’ over their lives
Three quarters of carers in Britain say they are losing “control” of their lives, major study shows
NHS research found that growing numbers of carers are having to put their own lives on hold to support disabled or elderly loved-ones.
The study showed that more than half of those with caring responsibilities are struggling with disabilities or illnesses of their own – in many cases for decades on end.
The recent national census showed that 10 per cent of the entire population of the UK – or 6.5 million people – provide regular unpaid care to someone else, with over a third of them dedicating more than 20 hours a week.
But a survey of 58,000 carers in England by the Government’s Health and Social Care Information Centre showed that for all but a handful it is now having a major impact on their own lives, careers and even health.