Short Break Stories

Creative Breaks

A story by VSA Aberdeen City

We provided grants directly to carers who live in Aberdeen city

What Creative Breaks did

Publicity leaflets and applications were compiled and circulated to carers and professionals via GP's, health professional SW, Carers staff. These were readily available in the Carers Centres, Carers Point at the Royal infirmary, GP practices across the city and at the local Health Village.

Carers Support and Development Workers (CSDW) supported staff to complete and submit the applications. Decision making panels were established and consisted of carers, staff from health and SW and other third sector partners.

One of our carers expressed an interest in facilitating a Craft Group. This was supported by the Carers Centre who arranged an appropriate venue and promoted this opportunity to other carers. The group made an application to the CB fund for materials and tools and this was also well supported by donations from local firms. The group meet in 8 week blocks and are now being supported by the volunteer co-ordinator who will help them through the transition to being self-supporting.

One of our carers married her partner and shortly after the wedding her partner suffered a serious heart attack. The heart problem, in addition to other co- existing health problems, left him wheelchair bound. The couple have recently moved to a new tenancy and applied to the CB fund for money towards landscaping their garden. This saved the carer the stress of having to complete this on her own and also afforded them an accessible, easy to maintain space that they can benefit from for many years.
One of our male carers expressed an interest in the Reiki sessions that are on offer to carers. The practitioner offers 3 x taster sessions to carers and if they find this beneficial they can then access Reiki at a reduced cost. Our carer applied to CB fund to finance a further block of 10 sessions and expressed that he found these really beneficial- "they help me de-stress and I have a space that I can call my own"

What VSA Aberdeen City has learned

We continue to look at ways of engaging with carers from different ethnic groups. We have had 3 applications for CB funding from carers who are of Chinese, Eastern European and Iranian origin. This continues to be a challenge but we plan to be proactive in engaging with communities across Aberdeen City in an attempt to find hidden carers.
Top tips VSA Aberdeen City's top tips for an organisation that wants to run a similar project
Tip 1:
Including carers in the decision making panels is really beneficial
Tip 2:
Including a range of partners in the decision making panels is really beneficial from the decision making and promotion of the fund
Tip 3:
Carer feedback and Carers Stories are a really useful way to promote the service and additional funding