The service, which is a two-year pilot, is a joint effort between Crossroads and Marie Curie Cancer Care and forms part of the ‘Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme’ – a major palliative care programme which aims to support patients with terminal illnesses in making the choice over their place of care.
Belinda MacDougall, Manager of the Perth & Kinross branch of Crossroads, said:
“Respite is all about giving carers a well-deserved break from their caring responsibilities.
“We send a care attendant to the home to care for the patient, enabling the carer to take a break and do some of the things they wouldn’t normally get an opportunity to. This can range from a short break, such as visiting the hairdresser, doing some shopping or visiting a friend, to a more extended period such as an evening out. The carer may even just want to take some time to relax in another part of the house or catch up on some sleep, safe in the knowledge that one of our care attendants is there to look after the patient.
“All of our care attendants are extensively trained. Many have also undertaken specialist training in palliative care and are supported in this area by the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme to ensure that we deliver the best possible care to patients with life-limiting illnesses.”
Referrals to the service are normally made through a patient’s District Nurse or Clinical Nurse Specialist. However carers who feel they may be eligible for respite can also contact their local Crossroads office directly to find out more about the service.
Belinda continued:
“Giving carers a break is extremely important in helping them to cope in their role as full-time carer. When a carer feels supported, this in turn helps to keep patients in the comfort of their homes, where they really want to be, and out of hospital.”
Carers can call Angus Crossroads on 01241 878887, Dundee Crossroads on 01382 818557, and Perth & Kinross Crossroads on 01738 639460.
Ends
For more information, contact: Rebecca Douglass - Communications Manager, Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme, on 0207 599 7151 or at rebecca.douglass@mariecurie.org.uk
Notes to editors:
About Crossroads
- Crossroads is a Scottish charity that provides trained staff to take over the carer’s role for an agreed period of time, to prevent carers becoming ill through exhaustion.
- There are an estimated 500,000 carers in Scotland looking after a sick or elderly relative or friend. An estimated 60 per cent of carers never receive any support.
- Crossroads provides practical help to any carer, regardless of the age, disability or illness of the person being cared for. The charity’s aim is to provide high quality care, offering choice and independence to carers as much as possible. The service the charity provides recognises individual needs, giving due regard to clients’ dignity and wellbeing.
- As well as offering a respite service, Crossroads also cares for a number of clients who require help to remain independent in their own homes. This may include personal care, meal preparation, social outings and an overnight sleeping or waking service in accordance with the needs of service users.
About the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme
- The Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme, pioneered by leading charity Marie Curie Cancer Care, aims to develop and help provide the best possible services for palliative care in order to give people with life limiting illness the choice over where they are cared for and die. For most people, this choice is to be cared for and die at home.
- The programme involves a partnership approach. Working closely with the NHS, social services and the voluntary sector, it works to understand the current state of services in specific project areas, to enhance service provision, and to introduce new services where gaps are identified.
- So far, the programme has four projects up and running around the UK – in Lincolnshire, Tayside, Leeds and Barnet (North London) – and will launch its fifth in south-east London in September this year.
- Launched in October 2005, the Tayside project was the second to get underway.
- Funding respite care is one of many ways the programme is supporting patients with terminal illnesses in Tayside in making the choice over their place of care. Other services underway including a dedicated palliative care ambulance (operated by the Scottish Ambulance Service), improving rapid response services in the community, and developing Scotland’s first electonic patient register which will record patient details and their wishes for place of care.
- The programme reaches people affected by all kinds of life-limiting illnesses, and their carers.
- The programme’s Tayside project is feeding in to NHS Tayside’s Palliative Care Strategy, which provides a future direction for palliative care services in Tayside.
- Research commissioned by Marie Curie Cancer Care in Scotland has found that 75% of people living in Scotland, if faced with the choice, would like to be cared for and die at home, but the reality is that currently only 24% of all patients in Scotland are able to.
Issued on September 10, 2007
