Category Archives: disability
Walk to honour Sunderland’s carers
The Mayor of Sunderland Coun. Bob Heron officially starts the Walk in Celebration of Carers at Herrington Country Park, on Friday.
by Sue Kirby
sue.kirby@northeast-press.co.uk
PEOPLE from across Wearside took a walk in the park in honour of carers.
Herrington Country Park hosted The Walk in Celebration of Carers, which was officially started by the Mayor of Sunderland Councillor Bob Heron.
People with learning disabilities and carers walked a one-mile route to recognise and celebrate the important role played by the 32,500 carers across Sunderland, who look after ill and disabled family members or friends.
The walk was organised by Washington Multi-Purpose Centre, part of Sunderland City Council’s Health, Housing and Adult Services, to link in with National Carers Week, and was supported by Sunderland Carers’ Centre and Asda.
Coun Heron said: “It is an honour and a privilege to be part of this celebration of caring in Sunderland.
“Caring can be anything from a full-time commitment to spending a couple of hours a week looking after others, helping them have a better quality of life.
Carers putting themselves at risk over respite concerns, warns Vitalise
Disability charity Vitalise urges social care decision makers to take respite provision seriously
Carers’ concern about the quality of respite care is preventing them from taking up opportunities for respite breaks and putting their own health at risk, a study by national disability charity Vitalise has revealed.
In response to this week’s Carers Week survey, which highlights the financial, physical and emotional stresses faced by carers, Vitalise’s study has revealed the additional barriers that are preventing carers from accessing desperately-needed respite breaks for themselves and their loved ones.
‘We have gone back 30 years’ leading carer tells conference
Jean Willson: ‘I dare not let up. I’ve been a pain in the backside of the authorities for 40 years and I intend to continue being so’
Published: 14 June, 2013
by PETER GRUNER
THE care worker who recently received Islington’s highest honour, Freedom of the Borough, launched an attack on government cuts she claimed are putting conditions for vulnerable people back 30 years.
Jean Willson OBE, 71, a government adviser for the disabled, warned that thousands of unpaid family carers in the borough are struggling to cope in the current recession, weighed down by benefit cuts and financial burdens.
She spoke out on Wednesday at an event for National Carers Week at Centre 404, for people with learning difficulties and their families, in Camden Road, Holloway.
Ms Willson said: “It’s tough enough for people who have the usual problems. But it is doubly hard for disabled people and their families.”
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