The conference, at Horntye Park Sports Complex in Bohemia Road, was attended by carers throughout the county. It followed the launch of a new five-year joint plan for carers' by the Council and NHS on Carers Rights Day last year (4 December 2009) after extensive consultation.
The main findings showed that carers wanted respite, support and to be treated with respect as equal partners in care.
At the conference carers discussed the way ahead with Councillor Bill Bentley, the County Council Lead Member for Adult Social Care and heard from Charles Everett, the Chair of NHS Hastings & Rother, Marian Barnes, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Brighton and Keith Hinkley, the Council's Director of Adult Social Care.
The outcome was a commitment to set up action groups to look at ways of providing respite and better support for carers to look after their own health. Groups will also be set up to also look at the best ways to provide advice and information and how support can be given to carers if they want to find work.
Progress will be reported back to a county-wide Carers Partnership Board on a regular basis. and Care for the Carers, a local voluntary organisation, will be holding a Carers Forum three times a year in different parts of East Sussex, where carers will have an opportunity to contribute further.
Councillor Bill Bentley said after the conference:
"This has been a really successful conference and I would like to thank everyone who attended but particularly carers who took time out from the busy schedules. We will now put the plans into action. We want to help carers look after themselves and provide them with the support they need in caring for other people. The work of carers in the community is essential but they can only do it if they get the respite, support and respect that they need. We are now taking this forward with the NHS and the voluntary sector and carers themselves to ensure that we to make a positive difference to the lives of those that care for other people".
Charles Everett, chair of NHS Hastings & Rother, said:
"People who are caring for others deserve every support, for example, by helping make sure they get a break and have time to focus on their own health needs and futures. The conference has helped develop ways of achieving this".
For further information on support for carers, and details of the East Sussex Joint Commissioning Strategy for Carers' Services 2010-2015, go to our page on Improving support for carers.
Reference:
2742
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