Counsel and Care is a telephone advice and help line for people over 60, their friends and families. Their advice workers are trained on issues which concern older people and can help you learn about your rights.

They can provide you with information on the following issues:

Carers can get significant concessions on bus and train fares in South Devon. As a travelling companion of someone with a learning or physically disability, or sensory impairment, you may be able to obtain a ‘Countywide’ travel pass. This will entitle you to half off fare stage bus travel, and one third off rails journeys in Devon and Torbay.

The standard cost of this pass is £18 for 6 months, but some Town, Parish and Borough Councils subsidise even the cost of the pass itself, bringing the price down to as low as £3 in some cases.

The BBC is looking at a range of people who would like to be part of a Diversity Database.

They would like to hear from people who want to participate as possible contributors, contestants or members of studio audiences, or who have expertise which they are willing to share. One or two local carers have already taken part in radio interviews, and helped to raise the profile of what they do.

The aim of the database is to help programme makers reflect the full diversity of UK society, by introducing a wide range of new faces and voices to them.

How it works

To be added to the database you will need to complete a form available from the address below, which will say you are willing to take part in BBC programmes, perhaps as a spokesperson or panel member, as a focus of a story, or as a member of a studio audience. The database is password-protected and only BBC programme makers have access to it. For more information or an application form please contact:

To mark this years’ National Carers Week, Carers National Association revealed the finding of a study on the poverty experienced by carers, particularly those providing substantial amounts of care. Below are listed some of the results of the findings by those carers who responded:

The Registration and Inspection Units of Devon and Torbay Councils are keen to hear the views of carers with family, friends or relatives who use the services of a residential home, whether for respite or for full-time care.

This is the title of a new guide published by Age Concern, providing vital advice in promoting independent living. It is full of information and practical guidance, and takes an honest look at the challenge of arthritis from the point of view of the would-be family or informal carer.

Caring for Someone with Arthritis gives basic information about the most common forms of arthritis and how they can be treated, from drugs and exercise, to complementary therapy and diet. It examines the types of care and help people with arthritis want, and who can provide it - whether it is Social Services, doctors, and other professionals, or the carers themselves. It also features many personal experiences of people with arthritis and their carers.

At present the centre is open from 9.30am until 3pm, and staffed by suffers carers and volunteers working side by side.

The charity hopes it will eventually open from 9am to 10pm, seven days a week, as carers and users have indicated that their needs are often greatest in the evening or at weekends.

The centre provides activities such as art, computer studies, board games, pool, darts, etc together with a members’ cafeteria. There is no requirement for referral to the centre, enabling carers or suffers over the age of 18 to drop-in at any time.

In addition, all members have the opportunity of actively contributing to the running of the centre, and it is believed that this will provide certain suffers with a much needed sense of value. Members are asked to complete a simple form, and agree to abide by the ‘community rules’ established by the founder members. Unfortunately, membership is not available to any person who would require assistance with medication, and/or supervision.

Lifeways Child & Family Services is a not-for-profit provider of respite services, for children with special needs and their families living in Devon.

Having recently received a significant injection of cash from Devon Social Services, Lifeways can now offer in-home and out-of-home short-term breaks, individually tailored to the needs, capabilities and preferences of each child and family. This includes evening and overnight care. Assessment is undertaken by their own professional Care Co-ordinator, and the staff delivering the service are fully training and supervised.

The pilot project ‘Caring Option for Training and Work’, which started in January 1998, ended this July, and was evaluated by Plymouth University’s Community Research Centre.

This project was set up to work with carers, local support and guidance agencies and training providers, to develop a model enabling carers to access training, information and support, with a view to obtaining employment. The project set up clubs specially to inform carers, and the options open to them regarding work and training. The clubs also provided social support and information, including stress management and confidence building.

Examples of work carried out during the project include:

During the run up to National Carers Week, South Devon Carers’ Consortium visited all the Post Offices in the South Hams, to place leaflet dispensers on the counters, in an effort to reach more carers in the rural areas and provide local information.

The Ivybridge and District Branch of the Carers National Association’s Information Bus will be continuing it’s tour of the South Hams throughout the summer and can be visited at the following locations:

Ensleigh Garden Centre

Saturday July 15th From 10am

Ugborough

Ivybridge (Leonards Road )

Friday August 11th 11am - 2pm

The inaugural meeting, on 14 June, of the Yealmpton Carers Support Group was very well attended. Carers, former carers and volunteers eager to help gathered together to discuss how, when and where the group should meet. A full committee was elected, with officers, and the Ivybridge Branch of Carers National Association presented the Group with a £50 cheque, to help them with their initial start-up expenses, until further funding can be obtained.

The group intends to meet once a month, on the second Wednesday in the afternoon.

It is intended that the new group will be informal, but completely independent and run by the carers themselves, with the help of volunteers. Anyone looking after a sick/disabled/frail partner, relative, friend or a child with special needs, is a carer, and will be most welcome at the group’s meetings.

South Devon Carers’ Consortium has secured funding from Social Services (from this year’s Carers’ Grant) to run a couple of events for carers living in the South Hams. These events will be designed to give carers a ‘break-with-a-difference’, at which you can get away from it all for a day (or part of a day), and focus on rest and relaxation.

....for people with Physical and Sensory Disabilities, their enablers and carers, will hold their next meeting on Tuesday 17 October, in Ivybridge Town Hall, commencing at 1.45pm.

A new programme of lifting and handling training could be on offer to adults caring for a relative or friend. A partnership of the Health Improvement Forum for South Hams and West Devon is seeking the views of carers to find out if this sort of course would be readily taken up.

Alan Tibbenham, Chief Executive of the Primary Care Group, said “This is just one of many new pioneering projects about to be launched in this area, aimed at prevention and promotion of health”. Lynne Spencer, Health Improvement Co-ordinator explained, “If a person is suddenly confronted with looking after a loved one who becomes ill, the lack of necessary skills and knowledge on how to help with basic living tasks such as bathing, can prove to be a really difficult experience. The partnership is bringing together a range of experts...to ensure high quality training is devised and offered to those people who most need it”.

Membership of the Carers’ Link will ensure that you will be on a mailing list, will be kept up to date about carers’ issues, and will receive useful information about services and people who may be able to help you in your caring role.

Membership of the Register is free of charge and entirely voluntary – any information held there will be treated in the strictest confidence, and no disclosure of personal information will be allowed without your consent. Each year you will be asked to check over the information held on computer, and make any alterations necessary. You may of course telephone or write to the Carers’ Link Co-ordinator at any time to inform them of any changes.

...is a support group, meeting monthly at the St John’s Ambulance HQ, Totnes Road, Paignton.

Made up of carers and ex-carers, it is the ideal venue for obtaining information and support for any carers living in Paignton.

Meetings commence at 2pm, and dates for the rest of this year are as follows:

18 September……Woollcombe Beer Watts (Solicitors) for advice on benefits, powers of attorney, and more.

16 October………..Steve Gale from Disability Information Service.

20 November ……Speaker to be confirmed

18 December …...Christmas Lunch.

New members are always welcome.

Following hot on the heels of the new Torbay Carers’ Strategy, work is already underway to establish a Torbay-wide Register of Carers. This voluntary and confidential Register will hold information about carers and their needs, which will help agencies to plan and target support services more effectively.

Carer, someone will visit the home to take care of the needs of the cared-for.

What are these, I hear you ask? The Community Care (Direct Payments) Act 1996 empowers Social Services to make cash payments to people, so they can buy their own support services, instead of Social Services arranging them for you. This can include choosing your own home care assistant, or which day service you may want to use. The aim is to give people more choice and control over their lives and care arrangements.

In Torbay, a working group of staff, carer and service users was established, arising out of the new Carers Strategy (Measure Up), to look into starting a Direct Payments scheme here. A seminar was held in July to discuss the research findings, the practical implications for different user groups, and consider the way forward for developing a scheme in Torbay.

Following the success of the scheme, introduced during last winter, to offer carers a home visit to give help applying for benefits, the service is being continued for the whole of this year. Specially trained staff from the Financial and Benefits Team are able to tell carers, and their cared-for, if they are entitled to more benefits than they are currently claiming. In some cases, a family’s weekly income has doubled as a result of a visit from a member of this Team.

The staff can give advice on a range of benefits, and help to fill out forms for benefits like Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, and Invalid Care Allowance, as well as claims for Housing Benefit and Council Tax reductions.