Family Carers

Family Carers must be supported

Family carers are not paid.  But they save the Government lots of money by caring for their loved one.  And without this there would be more demands placed on social care.  So their role needs to be recognised and valued.

And the Carers and Direct Payments Act (Northern Ireland) 2002 entitles those who care to an assessment. This places a statutory duty on Health and Social Care Trusts:

• to make information generally available; and
• to inform individual carers, of their right to an assessment.

But families frequently describe how difficult their life is, feeling that they have to fight a system to get any help for their loved one.  And information on available services and supports is hard to find.

In 2005, Equal Lives highlighted better support for family members should provide:

• Easier access to information about help and how to access it
• Flexible breaks from their caring role and emergency support especially outside of normal office hours in the event of a family crisis
• More support in home
• Better training for staff and staff approaches that are based on respecting the expertise of the family carer and their central position in the life of their loved one
• Improved access to practical changes to the home environment and provision of practical aids
• Immediate implementation of the right to a Carer’s Assessment and more tangible responses to the needs identified in those assessments,
• Better access to Self-Directed Support that meet both their needs and the needs of their relative in order to give them greater control in the nature of support provided; and
• Planning processes that embrace the expertise of family carers and most importantly that lead to action being taken in response.

The Importance of Involving Family Carers

So Involvement, Co-Production, and Partnership Working give people who use services and supports, and their family carers a chance to share their ideas and experiences. And their input should be valued and included in decisions and plans within Health and Social Care (HSC).

Because they know best what services and supports can achieve great outcomes for people with a learning disability, autism and other support needs.

And working together with people who use services and supports and their family carers:

• Improves the quality and safety of services
• Makes services better suited to people’s needs and more efficient
• Benefits from the expertise and knowledge of people who use services and supports, and their family carers
• Guides planning and decision-making
• Reduces complaints
• Increases commitment to and follow-through on treatment plans.

Across the health and social care system in Northern Ireland there is a statutory duty to work with and seek input from people who use services and supports, and their family carers.  This includes:

• Planning how care will be provided
• Developing and reviewing proposals for changes to how care is delivered
• Making decisions about how care is provided
• Assessing how effective the care is.

This is called Personal and Public Involvement.