Archive
- Croydon
Guardian - Thursday 18th 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 - Croydon
Guardian - Thursday 18th October 2001
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View
summary Carers Report Here |
View
full report Here 
Please
note, all details on any of Press Releases displayed
on this site are provided by Companies, organisations,
Government departments and media and jml Training
and Consultancy does not take any responsibilty
for their content or accuracy
