Carers in Society

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Comment by Natalie Jewell on April 8, 2011 at 9:25

Volunteers and carers join together to save hospital ward:http://cot.ag/gbw1Ez

Carers strategy by Department of Health http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Public ationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_085345

Carers suffer from depression and poverty http://cot.ag/h1jkPO

 

Comment by Natalie Jewell on April 5, 2011 at 22:04

Organisations for carers http://cot.ag/hlwojj

Dementia carers train in empathy

Where to get help for carers http://cot.ag/ePWdFa (carer's assessment)

Votes focus on police and carers

Comment by Natalie Jewell on April 4, 2011 at 21:57

Some links I found:

 

Carer's Week 2011 - http://carersweek.org/

 

Carer's Allowance - http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/www.direct.gov.uk/en/Ca...

 in Society

 

Carers Blog - http://carersblog.wordpress.com/

Department of Health - http://cot.ag/eIDSo8

Webchat 5th April 7pm http://cot.ag/hIltYd

Comment by Jonathan Jewell on April 2, 2011 at 23:09

Hi all - sorry for the downtime - here's some of the activity that's been going on:

We now have a Twitter account, please follow us!: http://www.twitter.com/CarersInSociety

We now also have a Facebook page, go here and join up!: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carers-in-Society/151158128279729?re...

AND we have a LinkedIn group: http://rsafellowship.com/group/carersinsociety

So no matter what your social network, we've got something for you - yes, early days, but let's see what we can make of it.

Jonathan

Comment by Jonathan Jewell on December 16, 2010 at 3:55

Carers in the RSA - here's an excerpt from Matthew's blog:

 

Social care innovation points the way
December 1, 2010 by Matthew Taylor span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.matthewtaylorsblog.com/author/matthewtaylor/>
Filed under: Public policy span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.matthewtaylorsblog.com/category/public-policy/> , The RSA span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.matthewtaylorsblog.com/category/thersa/>  
Usually when I get asked to speak, it is on a specialist subject. Yesterday, for example I had a great time delivering the Edward Boyle Memorial Lecture span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.thersa.org/fellowship/fellowship-activity/regions-and-wo...> , on twenty first century enlightenment span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.thersa.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/315002/RSA_21cent...> , to Fellows and some non Fellows in Leeds. It is still more challenging when I am asked to speak on a topic which goes beyond my current (limited) expertise. As the date of the event approaches I get into a spin and rely heavily on the ‘idiot’s guides’ churned out by Ben Dellot from our Projects team, who doubles up as my occasional research assistant. But it also means I have to become reasonably informed about a new topic and, sometimes, it spurs me into thinking about whether there is any scope for a wider RSA intervention.
Tonight I am speaking at the National Care Forum span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.nationalcareforum.org.uk/>  annual review and this has got me doing some thinking about the future of care. I won’t bore readers with my whole argument but I thought there might be some interest in one key point.
I am going to argue that we need many kinds of innovation if we are to close the care gap (between what individuals and the state can afford and what is needed). The gap is already widening as local authorities withdraw all but essential care and the Centre for Social Justice span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/>  said this week it will grow by an additional £6 billion over the next two decades.
The areas of invention which most interests me tend to be at the intersection of three trends. First, the growth in personal and community based commissioning (Turning Point are doing some great work on the latter). Second, the search for ways of bridging and smoothing the divide between paid and unpaid care. Third, new ways of thinking about the economics of care, utilising not just money but other commodities such as time and housing.
There is a danger the audience will have heard of all of these but I am going to describe three ideas which I think are particularly powerful pointers to the direction we need to take if we are better to tap into the ‘hidden wealth’ of people’s willingness to share, care and connect.        
Caring Relationship Tickets  span style="color: #0000ff;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fureai_kippu> is a Japanese community currency created in 1995 by theSawayaka Welfare Foundation span style="color: #0000ff;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawayaka_Welfare_Foundation>  so that people could earn credits helping seniors in their community.
The basic unit of account is an hour of service to an elderly person. Sometimes seniors help each other and earn the credits, other times family members in other communities earn credits and transfer them to their parents who live elsewhere. For example, an elderly woman who no longer has a driver’s license; if you shop for her, you get credit for that, based on the kind of service and the number of hours. These credits accumulate- users may keep them for when they become sick or elderly themselves, then use the credits in exchange for services. Alternatively, the users may transfer credits to someone else.
An interesting lesson from the project has been that the elderly tend to prefer the services provided by people paid in the tickets over those paid in yen.To convert this community service to yen would seem to dilute the community ethic.
Closer to home there is Southwark Circles of Care span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.southwarkcircle.org.uk/> , the flagship in a network of ‘Circles’ that extends to Hammersmith & Fulham in West London and just last month to Suffolk County Council.  The concept and business model has been co-designed and developed over three years with over 1,000 older people and their families, in conjunction with the cutting edge service design consultancy, Participle span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.participle.net/> .
The service is delivered by a distributed network of people called Neighbourhood Helpers. These are people of all ages who share their talents and skills; many are also members and some are paid the London Living wage for their time. Each Circle is designed to be self-sustaining within a three-year launch period, and is supported by the Local Authority as it grows towards this milestone.
Third, Shared Lives span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.naaps.org.uk/en/shared-lives-membership/?PHPSESSID=8713e...>  and Homeshare span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.naaps.org.uk/en/homeshare/>  which are both initiatives developed and supported by NAAPS. Shared Lives is where an individual or a family chooses to include an isolated or under-supported older or disabled person in their family and community life. In many cases that person becomes a permanent part of a supportive family.
There are around 10,000 SL carers in the UK, of which 3,800 are NAAPS members. Shared Lives is unique in adult support, in that Shared Lives carers are paid a flat rate (like a foster carer) rather than by the hour, are expected to form two-way relationships including mutual links to family and social networks (as opposed to the highly boundaried, one-way “professional” support relationship), and because Shared Lives is based on matching individuals who need support with compatible Shared Lives carers and families.
Homeshare involves someone who needs some help to live independently in their own home being matched with someone who has a housing need and can provide a little support. “Householders” are often older people who own or are tenants in their own home but have developed some support needs or have become isolated or anxious about living alone. “Homesharers” are often younger people, students, or key public service workers who cannot afford housing where they work.
Sometimes ideas like the Big Society, hidden wealth and socially productive public services seem abstract but in these examples we can see a clear outline of the services of the future.
PS Because the splendid Clifford Longley is trapped in the snow I have just had an emergency call to join the panel for Moral Maze span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qk11> . The topic – should we be trying to live forever? Having prepared for my speech tonight the prospect of a long old age seems just a bit less daunting.

Comment by Jonathan Jewell on November 27, 2010 at 17:46

Thanks, Susan - I hadn't seen it but it will now be linked to from the official CiS webpage as well as from here. Very useful, hopefully we can build up something of a directory of these and I've created a discussion thread above to capture this.

Comment by Susan A. Bennett on November 27, 2010 at 17:07

Jonathan you are most probably aware of this but I have just picked up that BBC4's You and Yours has a web page on care in the UK at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/you-and-yours/care-in-the-uk-2...

Comment by Jonathan Jewell on November 26, 2010 at 13:24

Please have a look at the two discussion threads I have created, the first telling you what we have done, and the second offering thoughts on what we can do next (and what YOU can do).

Also note that together with Sam Thomas in the Fellowship Office at the RSA we are currently looking at developing a bid to the Catalyst Fund to support the development of a 'digital media Change Map' that will show the world the work that carers are doing, their roles and needs.

We really want to highlight the difficulties (horrors) of the care situation as it stands, but I call it a change map because what we are hoping to do is draw attention to the issues and over time show how the darkness of the situation gives way to change and 'light' not just at the end of the tunnel, but throughout the tunnel that many carers find themselves travelling through.

If you have any skills that can help to move this forward, either professional digital media type skills, influencing skills or access possibilities, or some other role that you can make an imaginative contribution to our work through, please, please get in touch.

Comment by Jonathan Jewell on November 22, 2010 at 17:42

Scott, thanks for this - I am not too aware of the differences between different countries, but it is certainly clear that there are lots of cultural differences in the approaches taken to caring, the cared-for and carers themselves even within our working group.


Do you have any further information perhaps on 'action led' arrangements that you have seen in action and any idea of what makes them more or less effective?

Comment by Scott Baron on November 22, 2010 at 12:10

The successful improvements in health and social well-being in recent years in civilised and industrialised countries, has brought many benefits to an increasing number of people who are also living longer. Unfortunately, many people of all ages, survive with various physical and mental health needs that cannot be met by government provision. The "carers" in society have increasingly provided much needed support that is not recognised by authorites.

My experience in intergenerational community working in UK and Japan reveals very different types and levels of involvement and attitudes to volunteering. In UK we are fortunate to have such a large number of commited `unsung heroes` and in the future there is likely to be increased depenency on the "carer" in society.

Any `action led` arrangements that can be introduced to enable the generousity of volunteers to be more `effective` is to be welcomed and encouraged.

Scott.Baron@Joining-Hands.org

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