Short Break Stories

Self Directed Short Breaks East Renfrewshire

A story by East Renfrewshire Carers Centre

We provided grants directly to carers who live in East Renfrewshire.

What Self Directed Short Breaks East Renfrewshire did

We have recruited a panel of 5 carers who receives applications weekly by email and who share their views and make recommendations to the Centre Manager.

Our Young Adult Carer Service received a new referral from the Local Authority Throughcare Team who support young people who are leaving the care of the local authority. The young adult carer had recently moved back home to care for her mum who was terminally ill. Despite the caring role the young adult carer had a difficult relationship with her mum and found the caring situation to be emotionally draining.

As well as providing emotional support to the young adult carer through the Time To Live Funding we were able to fund a holiday abroad for the young person to go on with her friends. It was the first time the young person had ever been abroad and provided a fantastic break away from the caring role but importantly allowed the young person to have the same opportunities as their friends. The situation at home remained difficult but the break provided the young person with a chance to reflect on things, recharge her batteries and face the challenges ahead.

Fantastic Friends Friday is a local group ran by young adults with learning disabilities and their parents. The group meet on a Friday night and provide social opportunities that most young adults take for granted such as the cinema, pub and just hanging out with friends.

The young people themselves came up with the proposal of going on a group holiday without their parents. The young people identified an adventure weekend that could meet their needs and worked with Youth Services from the Local Authority in order that they could provide staff which meant the young peoples parents did not come on the visit.

Through Time to Live Funding including the allocation from The Autism Strategy we were able to provide funding for 20 young people to go on a residential outdoor activity weekend. The young people had a fantastic break and their parents had a weekend break from their caring role although many worries common to all parents with a teenagers or young adults being away on holiday with their friends remained.
Through Time To Live Funding we were able to provide the work required to provide the carer with access to their garden which had became over grown and with lots of things that had been dumped or worn through time such as an old shed. A simple thing but the carer is able to leave the house and sit and enjoy their garden getting much needed relaxation time.

What East Renfrewshire Carers Centre has learned

Undoubtedly we have received many new referrals as a result if the Time To Live Fund. Originally this would have been to access the funding but over time services referring to us have became more aware of the other services the Centre can provide and have made referrals to the Centre for wider support.

Reviewing the applications made to the fund has highlighted the range of poor health and illness that carers suffer. Although we obviously knew that carers own health was affected seeing the conditions and illness highlighted in relation to the need for a break was really quite surprising.
Unfortunately we find it difficult to engage the local authority health and social care services in continuing to support the carers in relation to short breaks after the Time To Live support has finished.

This is particularly relevant when some carers were supported through home care services which gave them the opportunity to attend social or leisure activities in the community. The benefits of the support are highlighted by the evaluation process but unfortunately there are no instances when this support has continued by the local authority after the Time to Live Fund support stopped. Some carers have received support from the SDS Forum to take this on and work with the local authority.

Conversely the local authority do see acknowledge the benefits of the the Time To Live Model and are currently using the exact approach and learning from our project to pilot a project which will provide people with mild mental health problems with a small amount of funding to access social prescribing opportunities.
Top tips East Renfrewshire Carers Centre's top tips for an organisation that wants to run a similar project
Tip 1:
For the last reason highlighted above I would really encourage dialogue with the local authority. It can be difficult to provide carers with support that is unlikely to be repeated. Despite making sure that carers know that this is a short break and not an ongoing support that they come to depend/rely on
Tip 2:
I would really encourage people to be innovative. The most common request is to provide sitter support that allow the carer to have a break from their caring role but as mentioned above there is a fine line between this being a short break and a core service. Short breaks that can be sustained an have a lasting impact are harder to think of. The case study about the garden does this as does equipment such as powered golf trolley.
Tip 3:
As Carers Centre we obviously focus on the carer I think we could have done more to explore the options which support both the carer and the cared for person together.