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Powys Carers Service Newsletter - Autumn 2004 - Page:
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‘Take a Break for Carers’ 2004 will
be held from 22nd October to 19th November and is a fundraising
initiative designed to raise awareness of carers, the Trust, and
our network by encouraging supporters to ‘Take a Break for
Carers’.
A Take a Break event can be anything that you think will give carers
a short break. Guests and invitees make a small donation to the
host to help raise money for the Trust and the network. Some event
ideas include:
Invite friends and family round for
afternoon tea, coffee morning, Sunday brunch!
Have a wine tasting party!
Hold a scary Halloween party!
Manicure/relaxation party!
We are encouraging all our own supporters, the network and their
supporters to hold a ‘Take a Break for Carers’ event
to help raise awareness of carers’ issues and also at the
same time funds for our important work. Money raised by you or by
your supporters will be split 50/50 between the Trust and Powys
Carers Service.
Free fundraising ‘Take a Break for Carers’ packs will
be available soon and 3 packs will be sent to each Centre in September
- containing posters, balloons, event ideas, invitations, a money
box and paying in slips. This gives you loads of time to arrange
a Take a Break event.
For more information please contact
the main office on 01597 823800
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Services
for Children with Disability within Powys.
Bringing up children today presents its own difficulties and
joys but if your child suffers from a disability there are added
challenges to face. Some parents find that simply getting a
diagnosis of their child’s condition can be both time
consuming and difficult, and without a diagnosis, accessing
services can be difficult. Waiting for months for appointments
can also add to the stress levels of carers.
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One way around this process could be to go privately
and employ your own support worker, but the bills can be quite expensive
and almost certainly you will have to travel to receive these services.
North Powys Social Services has had particular difficulties with staff
shortages lately, which has not helped in the delivery of support
to parent carers of children with disabilities. However, it is good
to see that over the last few weeks new experienced staff have been
appointed and we wish them well with their work and hope to see improvements
from their appointment.
There also seems to be a lack of general respite facilities in Powys
both for residential and the carers own home. We know Powys County
Council is aware of this and are looking into various ways to meet
those needs, suggestions of which are found in Neil Dunn’s comments
attached to this article.
Powys Carers Service is seeking to support families with children
with disabilities by:
• Giving parents advice and support with reviews
• Occasionally attending reviews, when appropriate, to give
parents support
• Giving basic advice about Direct Payments
• Making sure that parents are aware of, and are receiving,
the correct benefits
• Support for other young carers in the family who may find
it difficult to cope.
Powys Carers Service aims to support carers by working with them and
the Local Authority towards enabling these children to have the best
service that is possible.
If you are a carer with a child with disabilities and would like to
know more about Direct Payments and other services available for your
specific needs, please contact your local outreach worker.
Powys County Council: Children, Families
and Lifelong Learning
Response to current problems with services
for parent carers of children with disabilities from Neil Dunn.
• We accept that we need to recruit
additional respite carers and this is something that we are currently
treating as a priority. Family aid provision is very important and
we are looking at ways of improving the co-ordination and support
available to our family aides, which should enable us to provide a
more flexible service.
• We are committed to improving greater choice between residential
and family based respite care and will be making every effort to develop
new initiatives in the future.
• The children with disabilities team is carrying vacancies
although we are very committed to ensure that the team is brought
up to full strength as soon as possible. We continue to provide social
work support to families, provide advice on benefits and allowances,
attend reviews as well as providing general support as appropriate.
• The Penmaes unit development in Brecon will provide an excellent
respite facility. We have used Ty Canol as flexibly as possible although
we accept that accessing the unit has been quite difficult for families
in the north of the county. We are looking at ways of addressing this
problem and a number of options are being considered.
• The Welsh Assembly Government have recently provided Local
Authorities with Policy and Practice Guidance on the Direct Payment
scheme, issued under the Local Authorities Social Services Act 1970.
The new scheme arrangements will come into effect on 1st November
2004 and will include people who have parental responsibility for
a disabled child. The preliminary guidance will allow children’s
services to prepare new policy and procedures in this important area.
We would like to thank Neil for his time
in adding these comments and for updating our carers on the current
service provision available and the potential improvements that the
Council are aiming to achieve.
If you have a view about anything written within this article or would
like to respond to these comments, please send in your response to
the main office, either by post or by email and we will pass them
on.
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