Sandra Amas Egbaran reports on National Carers’ Day in Greenwich.
‘As long as the money’s not wasted on sandwiches and sympathy’. Carer and mother Zoe Hetherington gave a guarded welcome to Greenwich council’s event to mark National Carers’ Rights Day on Friday 29th November. Having waited seven years for her son James to receive the help he needed, she reserves the right to remain cautious about council initiatives.
Over three hundred carers and charity representatives gathered together at Charlton House in Blackheath to share information – and sandwiches – about services available to support the long term sick in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The event was chaired by Councillor John Fahy, cabinet member for Health, Adults and Older People. Councillor Fahy promised to increase the level of support available to carers. He stressed the importance of care givers being enabled to regain a life of their own.
Zoe Hetherington supports these laudable ambitions; but she’s not holding her breath. Her son James, now 28, is a fully qualified carpenter who became mentally ill in his early twenties. It took nearly seven years to obtain the psychotherapy James required. It wasn’t that James and his mother were short of information: rather, it took a long time to gain access to the level of help and support they always knew they needed.
Unsurprisingly, Ms Hetherington is wary of ‘tickbox culture’. She knows that information initiatives can be helpful; but they are no substitute for real service provision.