Caring for carers

Written by Vincent Cable MP and published in Informer on Mon 9th Jul 2007

Last weekend I was invited to participate in the 10th anniversary celebration of the Homelink project at St Augustine's church in Whitton. Homelink provides day respite care for the elderly and disabled, enabling carers to have time to themselves.

The need to help carers is clear. Thousands of local people devote themselves to caring for elderly or sick parents or disabled children or friends and receive little assistance. The benefits system punishes carers who want to work part-time. Many go without holidays, or any break at all, for years. They easily become physically exhausted, emotionally drained and isolated. Yet they give invaluable love and care in a family setting. And they save the tax payer billions of pounds, keeping their loved ones out of hospital or nursing homes. Homelink has grown up to provide local carers with a day's break. It is now used by well over a hundred families a week, usually on a GP recommendation. To survive and expand has been a struggle. Initially, the NHS, the council and local charities didn't want to know; this was someone else's problem. But they, together with generous individuals and corporate donors like the RFU have all helped with funding. Now Homelink has outgrown its premises and is looking at a bigger, new development.

Homelink is a great success for the local community and the church which inspired it. At the commemorative service, clients and carers spoke movingly of the burden lifted from their lives by, just, one day of respite care. Other dedicated voluntary groups like the Whitton Network - which provides car lifts - CrossRoads, HANDS in Twickenham and the Community Care Group in Hampton Hill help in other ways. It is heart warming in our materialistic age to see that so many carers are willing to make sacrifices for loved ones and that enough volunteers and professionals will rally round to help them.