New carers' strategy to be launched
Efforts to maintain and improve the health and wellbeing of adult unpaid carers in Moray are to be driven forward by a new strategy entitled Carry on Caring.
It will be launched on Friday, November 25 to coincide with Carers’ Rights Day.
Each year, Carers’ Rights Day aims to bring organisations across the UK together to help carers in their local community know their rights and find out how to get the help and support they are entitled to.
To celebrate this year’s event, Quarriers Carer Support Service is hosting a series of Carers Cafés at Mackenzie and Cruickshank in Forres, Café Coull in Buckie and the Harvest Centre in Elgin from 10am to 12 noon.
A CAB advisor will be on hand at Buckie and Forres to speak about welfare rights - though not on individual cases - and in Elgin there will be someone from Housing Options Scotland to talk about the options available to older people in terms of rental, ownership, adaptations and other housing issues.
Carry on Caring, which is the follow-up strategy to Caring Together In Moray 2012-2015, will be launched at these events with copies available for collection.
Aimee Borzoni, carers strategy officer for Health and Social Care Moray, said: “Carry on Caring sets out to provide opportunities for unpaid carers to have a life outside of their caring role, as it is vital that carers are supported to feel less isolated and overwhelmed.
“Within the strategy, the aims and principles are clearly laid out to inform carers how they can receive support over the next three years and I would urge anybody with a caring role to read Carry on Caring.”
The strategy was developed with people with experience of caring and people involved in health and social care.It has been approved by Moray councillors and noted by the Moray Integration Joint Board which has budget and decision-making responsibility for a wide range of health and social care functions for adults.
Ivan Augustus is a local unpaid carer who sits on the Integrated Joint Board to represent the wider unpaid carer community.
He said: “Good communication is key between unpaid carers and services and my aim is to provide a link between the two so that services are clearer regarding the wants and needs of unpaid carers.
“The carer voice is vital and we need to truly be heard in order to receive the support we need.”
Mr Augustus will be at the Carers Café in Forres on Carers’ Rights Day and is keen to hear the views of other unpaid carers.
Moray Council area stretches from Tomintoul in the south to the shores of the Moray Firth, from Keith in the east to Forres in the west. The council and its 4,500 employees respond to the needs of 95,510 residents in this beautiful part of Scotland, which nestles between Aberdeenshire and the Highlands.
Famous for its colony of dolphins, fabulous beaches and more malt whisky distilleries than any where else in Scotland, Moray is a thriving area and a great place to live.
Headquartered in Elgin, the administrative capital of Moray.