If you live in Edinburgh and provide unpaid care to family, friends and neighbours, you can have your say on how public and voluntary organisations can provide you with better support.
The City of Edinburgh Council has launched a consultation on its draft Joint Carers’ Strategy, developed in partnership with NHS Lothian, the voluntary sector and carers themselves.
The Joint Carers’ Strategy, and consultation, covers six priorities:
- identifying carers – helping people who care for others realise they can get support
- information and advice – carer training, advice, help with finances and benefits
- health and wellbeing – emotional, social and practical support to improve health
- short breaks and respite – giving carers a break from caring
- young adult carers – supporting the transition to adulthood for carers
- personalising support for carers – support that meets the individual needs of carers
The Council offers a range of support to carers, including a pilot scheme to provide a one-off Carer Support Payment of £250, which was recently highlighted as an example of best practice by the Scottish Government. The payment was made available to unpaid carers, adult and young carers who met the criteria, allowing them to spend some time on themselves to improve their health and wellbeing.
Another successful scheme has been the Carer’s Emergency Card, which was launched in November 2012. These cards are designed to inform emergency services that the holder is a carer and that someone depends on them. It also provides the names of people who can be contacted in case of an emergency. To date 258 carer’s cards have been registered and these will continue to be promoted.
Both schemes received positive feedback in a newly published carers’ survey, designed to evaluate these and other initiatives. The Carer Support Payment proved to be particularly popular, with 738 payments made to adult and young carers. 84% of people in receipt of the fund said that it provided them with the support as they intended and 30% chose to spend the money on respite or a short break.
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