The Respite Association became a registered charity on 16th May 2001. Their main aim is to assist in the funding of appropriately qualified respite care for disabled, sick or elderly persons, so that their regular carer can be allowed to take a much needed break.

Many of the people who are at home caring for a loved one are forced to live on very limited income. It is these people that the Respite Association are working to assist.

Providing suitably qualified carer workers in the home, or a temporary place in a residential care centre, is an expensive business. This is why so many carers find themselves unable to take a holiday to re-charge their batteries. The Respite Association will try to meet all or part of the cost according to individual circumstances and need.

You can contact them 24-a-hours a day. If an adviser isn’t available when you call, you can leave a message and they will get back to you. All enquiries are private and confidential.

Practical help and guidance for carers is available in the form of a new book called “Is the Cooker turned off?” by Josephine & Michael Woolf.

This book offers help and advice about looking after a person with memory difficulties, and suggests ways to help carers to look after themselves in what can be difficult and stressful times.

In spite of different reasons for memory failure, different degrees of memory impairment and unique personalities, people with failing memory need understanding, compassion and the appropriate regime of care.

The book aims to help carers for someone at home, people who spend time with relatives and friends cared-for in a residential or nursing home, and professionals involved in caring for older people.

Anyone with any connection with, or interest in, the condition and management of Autistic Spectrum Disorders is very welcome to any of the forums - free of charge.

The Health Service Ombudsman recently published a report on NHS funding for long term care. They found that some health authorities were using over restrictive local criteria to decide whether or not individual patients were entitled to free NHS care in a care home.

The Ombudsman is concerned that there may be others across the country who have suffered a similar injustice. They have recommended, amongst other things, that Health Service Organisations should try to identify those patients in their area who may have been disadvantaged by unfair or wrongly applied criteria, and remedy any injustice caused. This could mean reimbursement of nursing home fees to some individuals or to their estates.

You should, as usual, put your complaint in writing to the relevant health service body. However, if after three months you are not satisfied with the response or with progress towards resolving matters, complainants can write to the Ombudsman who will decide whether to intervene.

Do you have any old mobile digital phones lurking in drawers at home, or do you throw your printer cartridges away at the end of their life?

Carers UK have teamed up with a company who are happy to pay them for every mobile phone, printer or toner cartridge that they send to them for recycling. For every phone or cartridge that is recycled, we are saving space and pollution in our landfill sites. Phones that can be saved are sent to areas of the world where landlines are unavailable.

…means giving your body the best possible intake of nutrients to allow it to be as healthy as possible and function to its best ability. How we eat is strongly reflected in how we feel, how we behave and how we age. By being selective about what you eat, you can greatly influence your health, vitality and longevity.

The principles set out by the Institute of Optimum Nutrition in London were recently put into practice at a Carers Recharging Day in the South Hams, where the chef was persuaded to prepare an organic lunch. This was very successful and much appreciated. The following simple recipe was typical of the many dishes on offer that day:

Brown Rice Salad

The Carers’ Link (South Hams & West Devon) is launching a new Emergency Response Card Scheme, with support from Call24Hour call centre. This important new service is a simple and safe way to make sure that if anything happens to carers whilst they are out, help can be summoned for the person they care for.

Carers’ Link members who join the scheme will be given a card to carry with them at all times. The card will have on it a unique reference number and the telephone number of Call24Hour. In an emergency, when someone rings that number, Call24Hour staff will make sure the carer’s instructions are followed, so that the person they care for is looked after.

The service operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No personal details are shown on the card, and the call centre staff do not give out any personal information to the person who calls them.

An Information Sheet giving more details of the scheme is enclosed with this Newsletter, and an enrolment form is being sent out to all Link members. If you are a carer living in South Hams & West Devon and you are not already on the Carers’ Link but would like more information about joining, please contact:

...was set up in July 2001 by a small group of local parents who have children with special needs. The number of parents who want to be part of the group has steadily grown and has now reached over seventy.

Membership is open to parents who care for children and young people with special needs aged from 0-18+ years. These parent carers will either live in Teignbridge themselves, or have children who receive services there.

They aim to provide members with:

A source of mutual support

Access to relevant information

A means of making their views known to the statutory agencies.

They would like to offer as many parent carers as possible the opportunity to be part of the group.

The aim of the new forum is to provide parents who care for children with special needs aged 0-18 years - living within the area covered by Teignbridge Primary Care Trust - with a way of making their views known to the statutory agencies, i.e. Health, Social Services and Education about:

Meetings of the Teignbridge Parent Carer Forum are being held regularly. The dates of the next two are: Tuesday 13th May and Tuesday 1st July. Both of these meetings will be held from 10-12pm at the Maltings Resource Centre, Teign Road, Newton Abbot.

Torbay Citizens Advice Bureaux now deliver advice from 10 Doctors Surgeries across the Bay, as well their bureaux in Torquay, Paignton and Brixham. The CAB covers a wide range of enquiries including benefits, debt, housing, consumer, employment, family and relationships, and legal matters.

Patients, and carers of patients, at Greenswood, Mayfield, Walnut Road, Old Mill, Barton, Kirkham (Shiphay and Babbacombe), St Marychurch Medical Centre, Croft Hall, Parkhill and Old Farm surgeries can book an appointment by phoning the surgery reception.