Reflections
Report on Carers Breaks November 05 – March 06
In November we arranged our first trip for our newly formed carers group and it was agreed to take a small party of carers and their families to the local seaside resort of Blackpool for some fun and entertainment rounded off by a leisurely ride back through Blackpool’s famous Illuminations.
Our small party soon grew and we finished up with 3 minibuses and a total of 48 people made up of carers, cared for and families, wheelchairs, pushchairs, walking sticks, whatever means of motion all took part.
It was wonderful to see families out together, some of them for the first time in
months if not years because of the particular demands that occur when dealing with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, A.D.H.D. , Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Dementia to name but a few. To bring a smile to the faces of children and to see their parents actually relax even for just a few minutes makes us all realise why we do this.
Christmas 2005
We continued with a Carers Break two weeks before Christmas so that carers could have a complete away from it all break with time to do shopping in peace, sightsee or just relax in the hotel pool.
Evenings were spent in convivial conversation with good food and the occasional drink to lubricate the tonsils. For one couple it was the first break on their own for two years, a chance to remember that they were a couple before they became parents and carers. All the carers that took part were able to just be themselves without any pressure from other family members.
Quote from one carer in a letter to the committee:
“We were both on our knees with the stresses and strains of a child with ADHD, ODD and Autistic tendencies coupled with an unruly teenager with hormones in full swing and the weekend to Chester was more than welcome so many thanks.”
Look at this and you can see the stress just flowing away.
A well relaxed group prior to another session of extreme retail therapy
2006
LancashireCollege
Following on from that in the New Year we had an alternative therapies weekend organised for us by LancashireCollege as part of their Caring for Carers programme.
15 carers had the chance to learn and participate in Indian Head Massage, Tai Chi, Aromatherapy and a relatively new therapy called Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT for short.
This gave everyone a chance to experience different forms of therapy with one aim, to help people relax and get the best from their bodies.
With a quiet lounge and bar area to relax in at the end of the day’s tuition and good food throughout the weekend, an oasis of tranquillity in an otherwise noisy world. It brought home the fact that carers don’t just want free time, they want to be able to fill that time with activities that benefit themselves and by extension provide a better caring environment for the loved ones that they care for.
Comments from Carers
Mrs H.______Excellent Weekend
Mrs C.______It was good to have time for myself
And the support of other carers.
Mrs B.______Great.
Chester zoo
Having been caught before, this time we hired a large coach and prayed that we would fill it, it worked we had over 40 carers and families and excellent weather for the time of year and they were all allowed free rein. It was a total delight seeing children being children rather than carers, a chance for them to be looked after for a change.
Comments from Carers
Mrs C.______Well organised, and very friendly.
Mrs W.______Thank you for a lovely day out.
Mr D.______Extremely enjoyable.
Mrs C.______Everyone made us welcome and we
thoroughly enjoyed it.
Mrs C______Very pleasant day with very pleasant
company.
When the zoo closed and it was time to go home we did a headcount to make sure we hadn’t brought anyone back that we shouldn’t have and everyone arrived back tired but happy and the question everyone asked was “when are we going again?”.
Young Carers Activity Weekend.
As a Carers Support Group we are conscious of the fact that young carers often get an extremely raw deal and are usually at the back whenever resources are apportioned.
These are children that have parents with disabilities and have to grow up before their time, they are children with siblings with illnesses and disabilities that mean a families resources were often targeted to the one with the illness and they tend to miss out on the simplest things, having to be responsible for an autistic brother or sister, having to cook the meals because mum can’t hold a pan or stand near a cooker, these kinds of things make children old before they should be.
With this in mind we purposely set aside some of our funding and arranged to take a group of teenagers on an activity weekend with canoeing, archery, abseiling and night navigation , this was a chance for them to be teenagers within their own peer group and to be able to be themselves without any added responsibility.
This photo was after a disturbed night having had the fire alarm go off twice which meant clearing all the rooms and waiting outside for the fire brigade to arrive. After the second time an engineer replaced a faulty sensor and peace was once again restored.
A really good point came out with the fire officer complimenting all the children on vacating the building quickly and without any fuss or panic.
“I see no ships”
Getting ready for the water
The young lady at the front left was terrified of water an hour before this was taken, she really looks terrified now.
This was one of the purposes of the weekend, to show these children that they could do whatever they wanted, if they set their minds to it.
Instruction in the finer points of paddling your own canoe
The Sunday morning brought with it a howling blizzard and 4 inches of snow underfoot but undaunted they all presented themselves at the correct time and place to undergo climbing the abseil tower where temperatures because of the wind chill were minus 4 and in a howling wind, driving snow and feeling like ice cubes the still persevered in abseiling down to complete the morning. The archery was also a victim of the weather conditions and so everyone retired to the living accommodation for hot soup and sandwiches to finish off the weekend.
All the participants went home having had a totally enjoyable and busy weekend, made lots of new friends and pushed their own personal boundaries a little bit further.
The main question on everyone’s lips was when the next one would be, where would it be and what would we be doing. All the adults that attended in a supervisory capacity were full of praise for all the individuals that attended and the staff at the centre were also extremely pleased with the determination showed by everyone and said they would be only too pleased to have them back.
In this climate when teenagers are often on the front pages for less praiseworthy activities it was great to see a bunch of teenagers being teenagers without causing problems for others and I personally was proud to have been a part of giving them that opportunity.
Wet through but undaunted
Summary
All the members of the steering committee that planned, organised and led all these activities are all themselves full time carers and did all this work on a totally voluntary basis. To put it into perspective, the grants received helped to provide approximately 2900 hours of respite breaks for carers and their families.
This was achieved with the support of the Fouracre Trust, Wigan Council, Wigan Community Chest, Wigan Social Services and Wigan & Leigh Crossroads, so a Big Thank You to all concerned.