ALLIANCE Celebrates Carers Rights Day
To mark Carers Rights Day on 29 November, the ALLIANCE held
an event to recognise and celebrate Scotland’s 670,000 carers and the
indispensable role that they play.
Guests heard from representatives of the Scottish Dementia
Clinical Research Network, who explained their role in enabling high quality
research into the causes and consequences of dementia. By joining their
research interest register, people living with dementia and their carers can
have their say on what is important to them and what needs to be done.
Tommy Whitelaw, Dementia Carer Voices Project Engagement
Lead, shared video of an interview he gave for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Patient’s
Stories Library, highlighting aspects of his journey as a carer. In the film,
Tommy described how he didn’t recognise himself as a carer until he reached a
crisis situation and how he didn’t know where, or how to access support.
Jim Martin, Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, spoke of his
office’s role in handling complaints about most public services in Scotland and
spreading learning from these cases to inform improvement. He noted that as the
final port of call, his office sees only “marathon runners”, people who have
the energy to take complaints further, not “sprinters”. He outlined his
commitment to harnessing the knowledge of carers and others to simplify
complaints processes and is bringing together advocacy groups and third sector
organisations including the ALLIANCE, to plan how to make this journey easier.
Commenting on the event, ALLIANCE Programme Director Irene
Oldfather said “the theme the day was ‘rights, advice and support’, focusing on
ensuring all carers understand their rights and get advice and information that
can help them and the person they look after.”
Jim Martin, Scottish Public Services Ombudsman said “It was
a pleasure to hear first-hand from carers and those receiving services about
where and how we can do better.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for leaving a comment at the tommyontour blog. Your comment will be moderated and published very soon.