Blog Posts

The Diggers have Arrived!

30/5/2014

The diggers have arrived on site and work has begun for the new Homelink Day Respite Care Centre, Whitton. Homelink will continue to operate from St Augustine’s Church Hall until the centre is ready. The building will be completed by October and Homelink will be moving across to the new centre from January 2015.

The new centre is being designed specifically for those with a dementia diagnosis. The colours, layout, fitting, the signage and the furnishings will all contribute to reducing anxiety in those with a dementia and creating an environment that is pleasant and homely. However, we have ensured it will also benefit our non-dementia clients who come to Homelink each week and we are particularly looking forward to a the sensory garden.

We want other caring organisations to use the building so our local carers can benefit. Should you be looking for a meeting room or wish to hire our lounge/dining area for meetings or training sessions please contact the Homelink Business Manager, Jen Clarke 020 8255 1992 who will register your interest at this stage.

Carers Trust launch Britain's Best Breakfast

21/5/2014

It’s a well-known fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but a new survey commissioned by national charity Carers Trust shows that 56% of Britons surveyed who eat breakfast on a weekday spend 10 minutes or less preparing and eating breakfast during the week and more than one in three (39%) who eat breakfast on a weekend spend 10 minutes or less at the weekend. Almost two in ten (19%) of men and 11% of women don’t normally eat anything at all for breakfast on a weekday.

The findings come as Carers Trust, the largest charity for carers launches its first ever national fundraising campaign ‘Britain’s Best Breakfast’ to raise money to help support more unpaid carers and give them a break from their caring role and to encourage people to wake up to the issue of caring.

There are seven million unpaid carers in the UK and over the next 30 years this number will increase by 3.4 million (around 60%). Three in five of us will become a carer at some point in our lives [1]

Thea Stein, Chief Executive of Carers Trust comments: “Carers frequently tell us that they are exhausted, have no time for themselves and neglect their own health and wellbeing. Caring for a family member or friend can be back breaking and physically demanding and that’s why they need your help.”

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It gives us fuel and energy to help us get through the day. We know that many carers skip breakfast because they simply don’t have time to prepare or eat it. Help us give them some more support.”

“We probably all know a carer. It could be your elderly neighbour caring for his wife, the mum across the road caring for her disabled daughter or the boy in your son’s class who cares for his mum who has cancer. Carers come from all walks of life. Please help us help them by getting involved with our campaign.”

The campaign will encourage people to hold a breakfast event in October 2014 for their friends and family and raise money for Carers Trust. For more information about the campaign text egg to 70660 or visit.www.britainsbestbreakfast.org

RCC - Spring Social Evening and Art Exhibition

20/2/2014

'Off to work' by Barry

Last night I attended my first social evening at the Richmond Carers Centre which also happened to be the first exhibition of works by the Centre’s Art Group. Cornelia Eberhardt, a highly skilled artist and tutor working for Richmond Adult Community College has been assisting Carol, Barry and Rachid for the last two weeks with preparing their work for display. Her knowledge and experience has been a huge benefit to the group and they all expressed quite passionately the gratitude they felt towards her as we gathered at the beginning of the evening.

Rachid, who has been attending the art group just 3 months and is the group’s newest member said “I had no experience, but with Cornelia she has shown me how to prepare the frame and cut it, measure it. She’s very patient and professional. I’m very grateful.”

The group meet every Friday morning and its longest serving member Carol has been attending for ten years. Carol works in a number of mediums and had some education in art during her teens. Her exhibition pieces included painting using relief and 3D cube structures with painted surfaces depicting aspects of her caring role. One artist that has recently inspired Carol was Dale Chihuly, an American glass sculptor. The group created a number of ‘Chihulies’ from tissue paper and wire. She describes the Richmond Carers Centre Art Group as ‘an anchor’.

'Through the eyes of a child' by Rachid

“Whatever else is going on in my life which is very chaotic a lot of the time, this is always a steady point. I’ve hardly ever missed it, only when there’s a real crisis and then I’m back the next week. It’s a sort of stability and you really do relax when you’re here and you switch off so it’s very good.”

Carol, Barry and Rachid at the exhibition

Carol, Barry and Rachid enjoying the exhibition

Barry with his first painting 'Market Day'

Barry too, touched on the benefits he feels from coming to the group.

“It actually gives me a chance to get away from my role as a carer which is not a 9-5 job, Monday to Friday, its seven days a week 24-7 and this helps me relax.” Many of the paintings exhibited by Barry were inspired by Lowry following a trip to the Tate Britain in September with the Richmond Carers Centre Culture Club. It is his ambition to have his work exhibited in a recognised art gallery.

Painting has long been considered a form of meditation and Cornelia described to me the importance of removing all barriers when using art as a therapy. She explained that we are so shaped by our perceptions that our ability can be inhibited by what we consider to be good art or bad art. We create barriers as we grow up, barriers that we didn't have as children.
“There is no right or wrong with art” Cornelia told me the day before the exhibition and Barry echoed this sentiment on the night, telling me with great conviction that “it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks as long as you like them.”

'Venice - Lion of St. Mark' by Carol

The exhibition was a great success, giving the artists a chance to display their work and witness the reaction of other carers. Opening yourself up like this is a brave thing in my opinion and I was thrilled to walk around and hear all the positive feedback the artists received. It proved an incredible experience for the artists though not an easy one to describe as Barry shrugged “I can’t put into words how I feel”.

NOT ALWAYS A & E

23/1/2014

Don't Go to A&E if it's not a serious emergency, call 111. This is one of six images used by Richmond and Kingston CCG's for the winter health campaign.

This is one of six images that Richmond and Kingston Clinical Commissioning Groups will be using to support their winter health campaign 'Not Always A&E'

Clinical Commissioning Groups across south east and south west London are running an eye-catching winter campaign to dissuade local activity away from A&E when it is more appropriate that their ailments are dealt with by local health services.

Richmond and Kingston CCGs have joined forces to promote the campaign locally. Both boroughs are in agreement that people must be encouraged to seek the right medical support for the treatment they require, in many cases this will be achieved by dialling 111 before setting out for A&E.

The campaign is supported by a website where visitors can find the nearest service to get the treatment they need.

A&E is for serious emergencies only and there are quicker and easier alternative local health services. People are urged to call 111 before going to A&E.

111 - fit for purpose?

30/7/2013

If you have heard about, or read the report from the BBC on our national news section, about the new 111 service you may start to wonder who to call and when. This is a dilemma for those who are caring for someone, so we wanted to hear about your experiences of the non-emergency 111 service.

So the question today is :

"What is your experience when calling the new 111 telephone number for non-emergency advice?

Who to turn to?

27/6/2013

I was chatting to my neighbour yesterday who has been caring for his wife, we live in a different Borough but it struck me how similar his experiences were to carers I have met while working in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
One of the common things I have heard is "I wish I knew about Richmond Carers Centre before" or "I didn't know that that kind of help is available. This had been my neighbour's experience, they had been struggling to cope and not asking for anything more because they didn't know who to ask.

So my question is "How do carers find out about the support that is available to them?"

It would be good to hear from carers how they heard about the different services that have helped as this would give us a far better understanding of how people engage with services.

Call for routine screening of carers for signs of depression

11/5/2013

BBC News has today run a headline story about regular screening of carers' health and that 40% of carers are thought to be at risk of depression or stress. (Click here for the full story).This probably is really news to most of us and many carers are left to find their own pathway through the role of being a carer. Stress is a common issue that we see carers suffering from and I am sure many carers could identify with the thought of being depressed. Richmond Carers Centre and the Carers Hub Service partners all offer different services that can help carers to learn about ways to manage stress and cope better, maintaining their health and well-being. Locally there are services targeting carers health and you may like to call Richmond Carers Centre on 020 8867 2380 for advice on what is available. Many carers have found ways to cope, the question today is:
What is your way of coping with stress and what do you do to try to reduce the impact it has on your own health?

Confused and bewildered

7/5/2013

Having worked in Social Care for many years I thought it would be easy to know what to do and where to go for help. Sadly this wasn't the case as different Boroughs have different systems and arrangements. So everything I knew from working in Richmond upon Thames did not always translate. It has made me realise that you don't really know what help is available, we hear from carers who frequently say they have never heard of the Carers Centre or didn't know about certain services or benefits.Its a bit like a dictionary really - you need to know how to spell the word to be able to look it up in the first place. So as carers you don't know what help you can get until you know what help is available.
So at the heart of this is the question:
"How do we make carers aware of the service that are available to them?"

Choice

3/5/2013

4 Comments

I supported both my parents. My Dad suffered from Alzheimer's and my Mum was his main carer, but I chose to leave university and be part of supporting him. Mum gradually got older and frailer, her physical health deteriorated and she needed a lot of support. Dad had been gone many years and Mum and I were close and I needed to choose what role I took in her care. I am lucky as I have worked in social care for much of my career, so I was very sure of my boundaries and what I would and would not do. Working with supporting carers for the past 10 years I have noticed that some people recognise what choices they have, while others see no choice in being a carer at all.

So the question is "What choices do carers have?"