If you’re a Carer for someone who can’t be left on their own, and there isn’t someone else who can take over, then taking a break is a lot more difficult than it might sound. Carers can feel like their situation is completely overwhelming, with no opportunity for even the shortest period of time off.
Carers in this position often find their own health and wellbeing deteriorating; partly because they are exhausted, and partly because it’s difficult to find time to prioritise their own health - so ensuring they get a regular break really is vital.
For some, asking a friend or family member to pop round and stay with the person needing care for a few hours occasionally may be possible, but if your loved one has complex medical needs, anxieties, dementia, mobility issues, and/or personal care needs then the person taking over the care needs to have training and experience, and this means a very highly skilled and experienced professional.
For Carers, and for someone with a health condition, a crucial thing for them is trust – they are putting their wellbeing in someone else’s hands. Having someone new turn up out of the blue can be highly disruptive and upsetting, making the Carer’s break very stressful and probably more bother than it’s worth for the Carer. This means a care professional is needed who not only is highly competent in care, but has developed a trusting relationship with the family, understands the caring role, is trained to deal with emergencies and the Carer and the person they care for has confidence in. Once everyone is comfortable and happy, the Carer can actually go and take their break.
So, providing breaks for Carers means its vital to have a highly skilled, dependable and consistent workforce of professionals who can build up relationships with the people they support. This is the key factor which enables breaks to be successful, resulting in carers’ health and wellbeing being improved.
At Crossroad Care Kent, we have around 200 staff who provide this vital service, day in day out, and receive amazing feedback from the people they support. Our staff go far above and beyond to provide excellent care, and they are amongst the most committed, talented and - especially by the people they care for – valued people around. But their jobs need to be stable, with regular funding coming from Kent County Council and other funders, and we are concerned that in new arrangements they are planning, this stability might come to be placed at risk.
Our staff want to continue to be the rock of support that they are for so many Kent families. Carers want that too. Any changes for the future must ensure our amazing workforce is still available to provide the highly skilled, trusted support so many Kent families depend on.