The Unscripted Carer – 31st May 2008
I remember when I first met my “Guideposts lady” (Pam) how keen she was for us to get a PC and access to the web “to give us something to do”. It took us a while to do this, as we had both worked with computers as part of our “day” job, and we had plenty of things to do in our life. We eventually gave in to her (if only to keep her happy!) and it has helped us build our new life together – but at the expense of losing time. It seems you only have to turn the laptop on to lose another hour! However, Pam’s insistence (nagging???) has turned out to be very useful in our “new” life.
I guess this is a long winded way of saying “where has the time gone?”
Access to email has allowed me to do loads of things this month. It started by my being asked to help Guideposts find someone to help Desi leave her current role, and take up her new promotion. I thought that Desi was “being nice” and that I would be the token carer at an interview panel. However, she duly bombarded me with emails about the vacancy, the expectations and the applicants CVs – this looked a bit serious! So I carefully studied them, and inevitably had a pre-conception of each candidate. On the day I duly got lost in Nuneaton (despite the sat nav!) but eventually found where we were interviewing. The day was really good, and each candidate offered a number of very positive benefits. Desi had organised the day to allow each candidate time to present their skills, and then be bombarded by questions. At the end, we agreed on the successful candidate, and I believe she accepted on the same day. I really enjoyed the day and I was really grateful for the opportunity to help – it was not mere tokenism, they really did want a carer’s view!
Access to email has also underpinned some “work” a couple of us are doing with Social Services to set up a “carers’ workshop” day on Monday June 2nd at the Holiday Inn. By now this will have been a success or flop, but it was a lot of hard and rewarding work to set it up. If it was a success we helped prove that carers can do things for themselves, if not…….!
We are currently investigating a “Webcam” for our laptop, so that we can keep in touch with our friends by seeing them as well as talking to them. Our initial motivation was to save money on phone calls, but now BT have introduced a new tariff that makes ringing up people “free”, so that reason has gone. I was amazed how cheap it is to get a web camera, we were quoted £25 to £30 by our local shop, only a year or so ago, we looked at this for work, and it was much dearer then. I have no idea what we will do about this. If anybody has any experience, please can they contact me via the blog?
As you all probably know, Direct Payments (DP) are currently free to carers, and are available as “one off” payments, or ongoing payments. Lat week I was able to have a “respite day” to see my mum in Leeds courtesy of DP. It is too easy just to see this as the cost of the train fare, welcome as that is, but the real benefit is knowing that there is someone “In My Place” to do the things I would have been doing at home. I dread to think how much it would cost to get someone to do this for 15 hours, certainly much more than the cost of the train! The day was a great success, even the weather failed to rain on us when it had the opportunity! It rained in Rugby and Leeds, but I was either in the station; on the train; in some shops; or having a coffee – when I was generally outside the rain lost its enthusiasm! I am very grateful for the support of my “Social Services lady” (Claire) who made this happen for me.
I don’t know whether to thank, or curse Pam – we definitely have no spare time now, but we do enjoy the access to the outside world – so I guess Pam was right after all!
Bye for now
Graham
