The first 25 years of Barry`s life Valerie had looked after him without too much difficulty, accessing day centres three times a week. Things became a little more difficult when her husband passed away. She started to struggle, as now she needed to do daily shopping, pay bills and day to day household chores. Her husband had previously done this for her, giving her the time to devote to their son.
Valerie started to struggle and did not know where to turn; the rest of her children now lived away from the area and could not give her the day to day help she needed. It took a neighbour who works in the care field to explain to Valerie that she could be recognised as an informal carer, enabling her to access community support.
When accessing the support and being recognised as a carer she came across 4 complicating factors,
Duration and frequency of care
In order for Valerie to become registered as an informal carer she had to prove she was caring for her son for 35 hours a week or more (The carers (recognition and service) act 1995)
. She broke this down as follows,
2 hours a day cleaning and bathing, 7 days a week - 14hrs
30 mins a day administering medication and creams, 7 days a week – 3.5 hours hrs
2 hours a day cooking and preparing meals – 7 days a week 14hrs
2 hours a day toileting – 7 days a week 14hrs
Total 45.5
This allowed Valerie to access community support and government benefits.
Labelling
For Valerie being labelled a carer was not something she accepted easily, as she saw it as a “mother’s duty”.
When it was explained to her that being recognised as a carer by local authorities would allow her to access more community support, she understood it could help her lookafter her son, and have some quality time for herself.
Interdependence
This was never an issue as Barry was almost completely dependent others to provide care and support for him.
Although in other situations where care can be reciprocated, such as looking after children, it could be difficult to identify if the person does require the level of care being given. Valerie did agree that she is able to cope at this present time with Barry`s needs but admits in her own words “I am not getting any younger”.
It is important for Valerie to identify when she might require more help or eventually no longer be able to care for her son.
Networks
In some cases where there is a large family network this could count against an individual to be recognised as a carer, so it is important to identify exactly what roles people play.
This was never a problem for Valerie as she did 90% of any caring for Barry, but needed help with domestic chores within the home.
Within any care network it is important to highlight any indirect care, in Valerie’s case it was the next door neighbour who identified that Valerie needed help.
This type of indirect care has a large role to play within any care network, giving emotional and practical support.
Conclusion
As time goes on we will all require some sort of care, whether it is formal or informal.
We may be part of some sort of care network right now, it could be post operation care or looking after an elderly family member.
Labelling someone with carer status may not mean anything to an informal carer but becomes subjective if it’s good or not.
Giving people access to information on services available to them when they are labelled, allows them to make an informed choice.
The government recognised the job informal carers do by introducing the Carers (Recognition and Service) act 1995.
There are approximately 6 million people in the UK providing unpaid support to the elderly, infirm, disabled or sick people.
This saves an approximate £57 billion a year (Carers UK, 2006).
If people are not given the help and training they need, then the people they support may become isolated unable to access the community and live as a full life as possible.
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