Transcript of
Caring for carers
My name's Anne Roberts and I'm chief executive of Crossroads Association.
Crossroads Association is the umbrella body
that supports a network of local Crossroads schemes in England and Wales.
Crossroads, in essence, is about giving carers,
people who care for a relative or a friend,
time so that they can have a break from their caring responsibilities.
We know there are over six million people in the UK
who care for a relative or friend
and we know that many of them juggle very busy lives,
so they tell us that having a break from those caring responsibilities
is absolutely critical.
People are affected in many ways when they become a carer.
It's very individual, nobody plans to become a carer.
People can find that their ability to maintain their job is affected,
that their health can be affected as a result of their caring role,
that they can lose friends, they can become socially isolated.
It's very individual and it does depend on individual reactions,
but we know that caring certainly does have an impact on people's lives.
It's inevitable that caring affects families as well.
It affects everybody around the person that is needing help and support.
If you're a parent caring for a child with a disability
then your focus can often be on that child
and it's harder then to find time to do things with the rest of your family.
If you're a husband or wife caring for one of your parents,
then your time for your own relationships can be diminished.
For Crossroads, one of the key things we do is provide a carers' support worker.
That person is trained and employed by the scheme
and their role is actually to provide support, usually in the home,
so that they will spend time with the person that the carer is looking after
so that carer can have a break
and do some of the things that are important for them.
The core service is a service provided in the home,
but also local schemes provide a range of different services.
It could be an after-school club or a specialist palliative care service.
Details on our website will enable people
to find out what a local scheme does.
The service can be different in each area,
depending on how it's been developed.
There are, carers tell us, many advantages to taking on a caring role.
You can develop new skills,
you can really have a reward
from providing support to somebody who needs your help.
Many carers find that they give advice and support to others in that role.
But I just think it's important that those benefits are really balanced
because I don't think carers should be finding
that they're disadvantaged as a result of their caring role,
so it is striking a balance.
