Launch of Carers Charter

As a Carer, like so many of you, life is often hard, often isolating, and we all know exactly why everything seems so bad. It is, therefore A privilege for me and my colleagues to have the chance to become engaged with the service providers and to have our voices heard by those who make the decisions, deliver the service.

Clearly not every carer can sit around the table to discuss things, so I take my role seriously, representing the thousands of ordinary folk who are going through the same difficulties I’ve faced. I feel it is important to draw on personal experiences to define how we would like the services shaped to help is cope.

There Carers Charter is the product of the thoughts of a group of people from a range of backgrounds and organisations, the one thing we all had in common was that we are all either carers or work to support carers, so we all know the problems faced, albeit from a different perspective, which has allowed us to approach the subject very openly and from all angles, leading us to what we all believe to be an excellent Carers Charter.

The launch event at County Hall was a huge success, with a huge degree of involvement and engagement between service providers, commissioners and carers. I am very optimistic that the spirit of the event, so positive and mutually supportive, will develop over the months and bring about a far more patient/carer focused service than many have perceived in the past.

The whole Carers Charter package is proof indeed that for carers and support groups to fully engage not only with each other but with the service providers is the way to achieve the most effective service for all concerned, and does , I believe signals the end of those groups and individuals who’s only concern is to condemn and criticise… and that is good news for carers.

Now we have the charter, lets move forward, continue to engage and develop between us a mental health service to be proud of, to be a role model.