In the current world financial climate, we all know that we all have to tighten our belts, whether we are an individual, company or government. Inevitably this will mean hardship and struggle for many, but this is not a time for political comment or recrimination, it is a time to make sure that cuts are made in a fair and reasonable way, minimising the harm as far as possible, in particular minimising the pain for those who are least able to cope or fight back.
A prime example is our National Health Service. People who need medical support need it because they are unwell, potentially could die if not treated properly in time. Perhaps in order to save the NHS some of the huge amount of money it spends every year we need to look at increasing efficiency within the service, minimising waste, and reducing the amount of cosmetic work done. Also more emphasis on checks and prevention could stop many people becoming seriously ill and needing ever increasing amounts of expensive treatment to help them.
One of the major savings currently available to the NHS is the countless thousands of unpaid, unsung carers, who suffer untold hardships to look after their loved ones, when they are hardly trained to do so, and really need medical support to help them. It is estimated that carers alone save the NHS some £100 billion per annum. Without them the NHS would surely collapse.
The pressure on carers is immense, many are emotionally and physically exhausted, and have a greatly reduced quality of life, in some cases, maybe as dramatically reduced as their loved one for whom they are caring. Many carers indeed become service users as a result of their caring, which is an additional drain on the NHS resources.
It is imperative that the Councils, both City and County, as well as the NHS understand the level of support they receive from carers, both in physical and financial terms, and treat them with proper respect and support them in their efforts to both care for their loved ones and help the service.
At present there are a number of commissioned groups in the City and County who are there to look after the interests of Carers and Service Users, and all on a voluntary basis. Each group has its own specialities, and acts both to support the carers and service users as well as lobbying the Councils and NHS seeking clarity, improvement and mutual support.
In the latest attempt at rationalisation the Councils are now planning to decommission all of the groups except for one, who will look after everyone, service users and carers alike. This will of course make financial sense and make liaison easier, working with just one group, but I fear it will seriously dilute the support service users and carers currently receive, making a difficult and stressful situation far worse, and potentially pushing more carers over into becoming service users themselves, which in the long term will be far more costly.
Above and beyond that, the differentiation between Physical and Mental Illness will be lost. If you are not a carer, or service user, this may not sound too serious, but the difference between caring for a loved one with mental illness is dramatically different to caring for a loved one with physical disabilities. I cannot say one is harder or more stressful than the other, but they are significantly different. The demands are different and the nature of the illnesses are different.
This means that a form which is designed to assess the needs of a carer for a person with mental illness will not cover all the needs of a carer for someone with a physical illness. To be fair, the County Council have agreed to add an appendix to their basic assessment form to cover some of the different requirements of the carer for a mentally ill person, but it is my belief that physical ands mental illnesses should be kept totally separate as they are so different in nature, have such different demands. It is unfair on the assessors, as well as the carers and service users, to try to cover everything under one form, one process.
My fear is that the proposals from County Hall will take away the specialist knowledge of those involved in Mental Health care and Physical Health care and reduce the whole thing to a paper exercise, ticking boxes without proper understanding or concern for the issues involved. This will inevitably lead to wrong conclusions and reduce the level of support to carers even further by simply not acknowledging or understanding the issues and needs of the people who need the support.
I find this a totally unacceptable situation and would very much like to see County Hall be totally transparent in its aims in this respect, and for them to listen, really listen, to the people so deeply involved, and to abandon this plan which will, I am sure, only lead to more problems, more hospital admissions due to exhaustion, nervous collapse and indeed heart attacks which will ultimately cost far more than supporting and working with the different groups as at present
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