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You and Yours聽- Transcript 大象传媒 Radio 4 |
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TX: 03.03.05 - Carers PRESENTER: PETER WHITE |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 大象传媒 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WHITE There are six million carers in the UK looking after perhaps an elderly parent, a spouse, a disabled child. Many of them will have had to give up work to do this and they may not have worked outside their home for years, even decades. Getting back into a job is one of the problems highlighted by the new All Party Parliamentary Group on Carers and we'll be hearing more about that in a moment. But first we join one group of carers who are taking part in a project in Suffolk, set up by the Learning Skills Council to help them re-enter the jobs market. ACTUALITY Good morning ladies, welcome to the second group session for the family carers into learning project here at Suffolk [indistinct word], I hope you got here okay in the snow. JULIA My name is Julia and I look after my husband who's got multiple sclerosis. He's had it for about 18 years and he was struck down with it quite badly, he was in a wheelchair within a year. He does go out two days to a club but apart from that he's at home. ZOE I'm Zoe and I look after my daughter Amy who's got global development [indistinct words] with autistic tendencies. In practice it means that she's 14 but her developmental age is about four. Each day is different because you don't know what her behaviour's going to be. I have another little girl of seven called Lauren and she's having a hard time sort of understanding what's going on, so it can be quite a handful. PROJECT WORKER When we devised the project at the beginning we sent out these questionnaires to 150 carers and we actually listed the different barriers to get back to employment after a long time of care. Like time, money, the respite costs for looking after somebody - so we got them to tick those and then we actually listed certain courses that we'd like to provide. CARER I would like to get into able to use the computer, which is something I keep saying I'm going to do and I've never got round to it and - which keeps you up a bit in the world, what's going on, which may help me, it's something I might like to do. PROJECT WORKER We've got confidence building, stress management, research - finding out what's out there. Time management and stress and anxiety management and also the mini makeover session which is the last session, which is more of a fun learning session, which is more practical really. ACTUALITY Choose a buddy, to buddy up with. We will be going through the whole process of a facial and makeup and then we will be helping you all to make each other up. PROJECT WORKER As a trained beauty therapist I have got a little bit of experience in that field. We feel that carers, in particular, are ladies who have quite often for very long periods of time been at home looking after the cared for and have lost their sense of worth and feel that they need a complete overhaul. And so we felt for the confidence building factor it would help if I, as a trained beauty therapist from the past, actually could try and do a makeover session where they were able to go from top to toe and we're going to do before and afters and we're going to have the whole thing presented to them when they've finished their course. VOX POP OF CARERS It's nice to have somebody think about you, because you always put yourself second, when you're a carer, you do the person you're caring first, their needs and that, and very often you end up doing nothing for yourself. I would like to have a job, one that I can feel like I'm doing something of some value and have some responsibility other than that of caring for somebody. Get some kind of minute degree of credit for something I do. And maybe make use of the actual qualifications I have. But a lot of the time you do think to yourself what is the point, because you struggle, struggle, struggle and you try and do something, something gets in the way of it, you can't do it and you think well I put all that effort in, what was the point? PROJECT WORKER Carers have a lot of skills they don't realise about, things like time management, I mean we'll get a lot of people that will sign up to that course but if you think of it realistically when they get up in the morning everything they do for themselves and their cared for is actually is scheduled - they might have to take pills - just something things - getting them out of bed - it's all sort of basic skills that they have, though they don't realise they can then transfer to maybe employment - organising things, talking to people in social services, doctors, going for appointments, making appointments - there's a lot of skills there, even just communicating on the phone to these people, it's a brilliant skill to have really and a lot of people can't do that. CARER I know you mustn't say you turn round you can be a nurse as well but if you think of the things that you do, do actually I've been told that the things I have to do with my husband some nurses can't even do it. But if I'm organised I can cope. PROJECT WORKER We are trying hard within the various sessions we're running to actually say to them okay I know you wouldn't normally go forwards and just leap that leap into what I'd like to do for me but what are you actually excellent at and we're going to force them in effect to take a look at themselves and see how amazing they are because a lot of them have lost sight of that totally. CARER It's somewhere to come where other people have the same problems and there'll be somebody who's supporting you and actually telling you, you can do this. Whereas people give you - oh what Amy and what about this and what about that and you do start thinking well perhaps I shouldn't because I am looking after Amy and I am doing this, you know, and you feel guilty because you're taking that bit of time out for yourself. You can do that here and they don't make you feel like - well you should be at home looking after your kids, waiting in case something goes wrong. WAITE That report from Caroline Swinburne. Well MP Hywell Francis is the chair of the new All Party Parliament Group on Carers and you've had personal experience of being a carer Hywell Francis, tell us about that firstly and what you learned about the problems that carers have as a result. FRANCIS Well yes I was a carer and my wife as well was a carer of our son Sam for 16 years. In those days of course, I'm talking about the '80s and '90s, the word carer was hardly ever used, I only became aware of it when I entered Parliament I suppose. It's a very isolating experience but it's also full of worry but at the same time it's an enriching experience - you have a different perspective of life, it can be a very rewarding experience as well. WAITE Well I've known a number of carers and they say the irony is that no one seems to really care about them. FRANCIS That's right. As you say in the introduction there are nearly six million in Britain. Increasingly however, although they are - tend to be very isolated thankfully there are many local and national carers organisations now that have identified their problems and have become very significant in performing a major advocacy role and government is becoming increasingly aware of their needs. WAITE Well of course, as you say, there's already, for example, a carers national association which has the Prime Minister's wife, Cherie Blair, as its patron. So will your new parliamentary lobby be more - can it be more than just another ginger group? FRANCIS Well it's now called the Carers - Carers UK and it also has a presence in all parts of the country. The All Party Group, which will be launched this afternoon, I may or may not become the chair of it, we have to go through an election, it will monitor the progress of the Carers Equal Opportunities Act, as it's implemented from next month. I was responsible, with Lord Jack Ashley, in taking that bill through Parliament last year and we are very keen that it doesn't gather dust on a shelf, it's very important for the act to be fully implemented. And so yes it will be a ginger group but it'll be a group that will be cross party and will be encouraging and supportive of the government in the way it will be implementing the act. WAITE So you're never going to let any government get off the hook? FRANCIS Oh not at all. It's very much a partnership as well, I mean the role of Parliament is to ensure that the government is called to account on all matters and this is an act which had full government support and we will be with the government ensuring that this act is implemented for the benefit of carers throughout the country. It's an act about ensuring that carers have a life beyond their caring responsibilities and it's very reassuring that in places like Suffolk the act is already being implemented. WAITE Hywell Francis, good luck with the new All Part Parliamentary Group on Carers. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 大象传媒 is not responsible for external websites |
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