Short Break Stories

Long Weekends Plus

A story by Crossroads Orkney

We provided grants directly to carers who live in the Orkney Islands.

What Long Weekends Plus did

We advertised our Time to Live Fund in the local newspaper, our website, our Facebook page and in our newsletter. Each applicant is sent guidance notes and an application form. On return of the application it goes before our panel of board member, deputy manager and manager and a decision is made on the grant to be awarded.

We can help people look for and book their breaks. We advise on a range of things that their break can be, such as trips off the island, gym membership, horse riding and alternative therapies such as massage, Relexology etc.

Two of our applicants who were awarded holidays have not been able to take them due to caring commitments.

Mrs P looks after her mother who has advanced dementia. Getting away for a break is extremely difficult as there is no one else to look after her mother. She has also had to give up her work due to her caring duties and finances are tight. She often feels tired and overwhelmed by all the appointments that she has to attend with her mother on top of all the other care she has to provide.

She has been let down with residential respite care in the past. She applied to our fund and was awarded a grant to go away for a few days and we also provided the care for her mother when she was away. She was extremely grateful for the break and said she felt so much better after it.

Mr T received a grant for him and his wife to go away for a holiday where she would be cared for and he could be with her but not doing the caring for her. This gave the couple the chance to do fun things together with the husband not being too tired to enjoy it.
Mrs Q cares for her husband who has dementia. She has no family network to help and finds caring to be stressful and tiring. She accesses our respite care scheme and also has a grant from Time To Live to go and have a massage. She feels this is time to herself where she can totally relax making her feel more able to continue with her caring role.

What Crossroads Orkney has learned

This fund compliments the services that we provide. We can assist our carers to have a break financially with the Time To Live grants and we can look after their dependants when they have their break if needed.

We offer a lot of services to carers but we think this one is the icing on the cake. Many of the services carers receive are just to cover basic needs, this one gives them something pleasurable to enjoy just for them.

It is very satisfying for us as an organisation to have this fund to distribute as it is so flexible in the types of breaks that can be accessed giving carers a huge choice of how they spend it.

We have had several first time applicants, probably due to increased advertising by using our new Facebook page.
Top tips Crossroads Orkney's top tips for an organisation that wants to run a similar project
Tip 1:
Keep the application process simple, you don't want to put carers off applying by having a complicated application system.
Tip 2:
Use every method of advertising you can, there are so many carers out there that will not be known to you.
Tip 3:
We find that carers very often don't think they deserve to get this funding as they tend to think there will be someone else in more need of it than them, they may need encouragement to apply.

"Thoroughly enjoyed the total relaxation and the time spent away from home. Did me a power of good - I am now a Pampered person! - Thank you"

Service User

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