Short Break Stories

Something to Look Forward To

A story by Fife Voluntary Action

We provided grants directly to carers who live in Fife and are caring for someone aged 20 years +

What Something to Look Forward To did

Following on from the last round of Creative Breaks funding, our project continued to deliver direct distribution of short breaks funding to carers in Fife. With the support of our partners on the monthly panel, Fife Carers Centre, Fife Young Carers, Crossroads and an individual Carer we continue to promote the fund and assist with the assessment of applications.

In addition to the usual advertising via our website and partners' publicity materials, this year we designed a leaflet which has been widely distributed to organisations that have contact with Carers as well as centres and other venues across Fife. A press release also ensured that we generated some articles in the local press for the Fund broadening the reach of our project.

Our application form and guidance is available online, and for those who need it our staff and partners are happy and pleased to offer further guidance in completing the form. After each monthly panel meeting our team process the awards and notify all the candidates of the outcome. This year we also tested a new post break telephone evaluation form which has proved very useful in developing our service and guidance on types of breaks for carers.

Two full time carers, MB and GP, completed separate application forms to apply for funds to enable them to spend some quality time together, developing a newly supportive friendship during a break to London. Both got very different things from the break; one to visit family (one member of whom had recently been unwell) and the other to feel supported by a friend to enable her to visit a long wished for city and its sights. In addition to their immediate goals for the break, they both report the importance of the cementing of their new found and supportive friendship which will sustain them in their caring role going forward.

Mr C, aged 69, cares full time for his wife, who is in a wheelchair with long term, multiple health conditions. His doctor recently diagnosed him with stress and prescribed medicine and courses in stress management. Following his application to the fund, the panel and the team supported him in finding a break that suited his situation and circumstances. The fund provided him with the means to purchase a treadmill which, with the encouragement of his wife, he uses for thirty minutes every day while she reads books and completes crosswords on the kindle that they also purchased with monies from the fund.

Mr C fed back that his fitness is so improved that his Doctor has reported that he is no longer depressed and that he, himself, feels "fighting fit" and happy to see his wife so happily occupied, as she is to see him so well. The difference the award made included respite for both carer and cared for leading to improved physical, mental and emotional wellbeing that can be sustained into the future for both of them .
JK looks after her friend who has lived with her for over thirty years, her friend has secondary progressive M.S. and is unable to walk and needs to use a power chair for mobility. Last Christmas was extremely stressful for JK as the caring situation came under severe strain, with a frightening hospital admission and a reduction in the care package award with JK missing her own 60th birthday celebrations. JK reported being ill herself, highly stressed and irritable with the caring situation under considerable strain. She applied for funding to contribute to a break at Homelands, a nearby fully equipped facility at Lundin Links where they could invite friends and family to visit and celebrate the 'missed' birthday and life.

JK reports that her stress levels are reduced and that she is feeling much more relaxed, her friend and cared for person also reports that there has been a "huge positive difference" in JK since their break. JK acknowledges the importance of taking a break and allocates time where the caring responsibilities allow, she really appreciated the value the Fund places on her wellbeing and her ability to continue in a role that she is fully committed to.

What Fife Voluntary Action has learned

Our project has been running successfully for 3 years now. Our processes are now well established but regularly reviewed. The significant learning this year has been around developing new media to communicate the fund to a wider audience in Fife. We have designed a new leaflet which has enabled us to approach a range of different organisations who deal with carers to raise awareness of the importance of carers taking a break and the benefits that such a break has on the sustainability of the caring role.

A press release also generated some local publicity which led to a number of carers with no links to Fife's care services sector applying to the Fund successfully. We hope to build on this interest in the coming year with further local press articles that focus on the importance of Carers taking a break and the benefits that result. In addition we have begun raising awareness of the fund and the importance of breaks within the BME communities through our newly established Equalities Hub.
Top tips Fife Voluntary Action's top tips for an organisation that wants to run a similar project
Tip 1:
Carers are the experts in their own caring situation, the role of the panel is to support the carer in designing the best possible break that suits their circumstances and personal outcomes.
Tip 2:
Make sure your panel has a range of individuals with different experience and specialist knowledge that supports the design of a break appropriate to the applicant.
Tip 3:
Include ideas that other carers have come up with in the publicity and promotional material and guidance that you distribute.

"These breaks are the best thing that can happen to caring families. The time away is just perfect to relax and escape just for a while"

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