Tag Archives: disability

Campaign for Torbay carers takes to the road

January 4, 2013   Carers, family, mental health

Torbay raising awareness for Carers

Friday, January 04, 2013
  1. ​Carers

    Paul Lucas (Non-Executive Director at Torbay and Southern Devon Health and Care NHS Trust), Caroline Taylor (Torbay Council’s Chief Operating Officer and Director of Adult Services), Janet Helmore (Carer), Pat Goss (Chair of Torbay Carers Register), Kevin Dixon (Carer)

​Stickers are springing up on car windows around the Bay with the message ‘Join Torbay Carers Register Now’ as part of a new campaign to raise awareness of the free help and support that is available to the thousands of unpaid carers across Torbay.

Torbay and Southern Devon Health and Care NHS Trust runs carers services for people living in the Bay. Torbay’s Carers Register is one of the most successful of its kind in the country, supporting over 3,500 carers a year. It offers unpaid carers a range of services including a Carers’ Emergency Card; discount scheme; a regular carers’ newsletter and a host of useful information and support including drop-in centres in two of the Bay’s towns.
The striking car window stickers feature an image of the purple and yellow Carers Register card and encourages people to sign up to the register to access help and support. This latest campaign was launched on National Carers’ Rights Day which also aims to raise awareness of the needs of unpaid carers across the country.

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Carers are unsung heroes

December 23, 2012   Carers, Wales

CHRISTMAS is traditionally a time of joy and happiness for families

Saturday, December 22, 2012

South Wales Evening Post

 

CHRISTMAS is traditionally a time of joy and happiness for families, but Christmas doesn’t mean it gets any easier for those who need support to live an independent and fulfilling life.

 

  1. A range of social services are currently being delivered to more than 150,000 people across Wales. These include older people, people with learning disabilities, mental health issues or people with a terminal illness.

At some point in life, it’s likely we’ll all come into contact with some form of social services. It’s therefore important that the Welsh Government does everything it can to make sure the right support reaches those who need it most. Over the past year and half, we’ve seen much progress in this field.

We’ve also seen the continued roll-out of the highly innovative integrated family support services to bring specialist care for vulnerable children and parents. Some £4.5million has already been made available to local authorities to implement better services for vulnerable looked-after children, including £1.5million for breaks for carers of disabled children.

There are around 340,000 unpaid carers in Wales, usually family members or friends. These people really are the unsung heroes and at times like Christmas, we need to remember and recognise all the unseen work that they do. I’d therefore like to thank all carers across Swansea and wish them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mike Hedges AM

Assembly Member, Swansea East

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/

 

 

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Learning disabled and carers must be to the fore in reforms

December 22, 2012   Carers, cerebral palsy, disability, learning difficulties, ukcuts

Cuts to these services do not work.

The proposal to shut three day centres in Glasgow and provide other services “in the community” is billed as a reform, but in fact it is only a step in a process which has been going on for years, of trying to cut the cost of learning disability (LD) services and at the same time introduce “personalisation” as the means of meeting needs and allocating scarce resources (“Kelman condemns closure of centres”, The Herald, December 17, and Letters, December 17, 18 & 19).

The need to cut costs is real. Regardless of who is to blame for the current squeeze on local government resources, in the real world there is going to be less money to spend on all local government services for some time to come. It is therefore essential to focus resources on things which will do most good.

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