Bucks
Free Press - Friday 19th October 2001 - Asian View: Not
alone with their duty to care
Although
there is still only the one topic, namely the war against
Afghanistan and the spectre of biological warfare in America,
I am pleased to note that life is beginning to return to
normal in many other respects.
Last
Friday a one day conference was held at Adams Park to launch
a report into the health and social care needs of carers
from minority ethnic communities in Wycombe and Chesham.
The
conference, organised by South Buckinghamshire Carers Centre,
was attended by representatives from social services, Wycombe
and Amersham hospitals and voluntary agencies.
Conference
delegates heard speakers including Alison Ryan, chief executive
of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, Lydia Yee, head
of racial equality at the Department of Health and Razia
Karim, a solicitor with the Commission for Racial Equality,
stress the national requirement for services to be provided
in a way that met the requirements of the Race Relations
(Amendment) Act.
Grainne
Suter, the author of the report headed Responding to
the Needs of the Minority Ethnic Carers and Andrew Cozens,
director of social services at Leicester City Council also
addressed the select gatheringe.
Caring
for a sick or disabled person can be a very demanding and
lonely task. Many carers get little time for themselves
and can feel very isolated.
Most
carers are women but there are also men who find themselves
in this position, and often they feel there is no one to
whom they can turn.
Speakers
at the conference urged communities to use the current services,
as it appears that for one reason or another, based on language
or cultural differences, the ethnic minority carers were
not availing themselves of the help and assistance which
is generally available.
The
other thing which was obvious from the many speakers was
the fact that the current approach of social services was
not reaching a significant number of carers within the Asian
community.
A
few felt that decision makers and planners needed to review
their work practices and to adopt good practice techniques
so that the minority ethnic carers were not entirely left
to their own devices to care for a member of their family.
The
Wycombe Carers Centre is passionately led by Patti Vincent,
who would like to emphasise to the carers from the Asian
community that asking services for additional support does
not mean that people are not doing their duty.
Nevertheless,
many carers within the Asian community see caring for a
relative as nothing more than their duty and some are not
aware of the full range of help which is available, or do
not have time to seek help.
There
is a need for the professional people to ensure that language
barriers or different attitudes based on religion or culture
should not deny help and assistance to the very people who
selflessly devote their life to caring for others.
Indeed
helping the carers with their caring role should improve
the quality of life for the sick person. Source:
Archive - Bucks Free Press - Friday 19th October 2001
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summary Carers report - CLICK
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