Crossroads Caring Scotland East Banff & Buchan Breaks
A story by Crossroads Caring Scotland
Our organisation provided respite breaks to children and young people with additional and complex needs from the Aberdeenshire area.
These breaks provided valuable and some times essential respite breaks to families allowing them to continue their caring role.
What Crossroads Caring Scotland East Banff & Buchan Breaks did
The activities that we provided included, overnight stays for small groups of children and young people with additional complex needs, these breaks consisted of the following, 2 x 2 night weekend breaks to a caravan park in Nairn for a total of 12 children and young people. 2 x 2 night weekend breaks in Aberdeen for a total of 8 children and young people. 2 x 1 night breaks within the family home and 2 planning sessions with an activity to help form friendships and boost confidence.
No recruitment or volunteers was required, only additional training was required for staff. We informed the local council and schools that we had been successful in gaining funding and asked if they would be in a position to forward any names we also drafted a letter to children and young people that we have previously provided a service too.
Parents/carers were in a position to visit family that do not reside locally knowing their child/young person was being supported by trained staff, others spent quality time with other siblings and several took the opportunity to recharge their batteries and have some ME time.
This provided the carer with the confidence and peace of mind knowing that her child will be supported by trained qualified staff. The carer visited the family member for a bit of support and reassurance and came back home feeling refreshed and confident in her role as a carer.
She showed good living skills as she wanted to help with tasks and help with meal prep which was a positive outcome.
What Crossroads Caring Scotland has learned
We have learned that plans can change at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances, however these challenges were met head on and we identified our strengths by adapting plans at the last minute.The funds gave us the opportunity to expand our service to meet the demands faced by families on a daily basis by providing them with the support required so that they can have some valuable respite not for an hour but a whole over night or weekend break so that they can reap the benefits. We were approached about our service due to word of mouth, the children and young people speaking about their trips at school to one another.