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Carers Week
The week of 12th to 18th June is Carers Week, the national awareness week for
all carers.
You may well see features about carers in papers, on TV and radio and on the
Internet. We at CoEL are working with East Lothian Council for a local
publicity campaign to make many more carers aware of the support that is available to them in their caring role – watch
out!
Carers Week also brings a range of special events taking place to mark the contribution
that carers make to the care of their loved ones. One of these is a trip to Pontin’s
and our party of carers and family members will be heading to Blackpool for the week along with carers from all over the UK.
As you may know 2006 is the 10th Anniversary of CoEL’s formation,
which makes this year’s Carers Week that extra bit special! To help celebrate
we are holding a Birthday Party on Tuesday 13th June at the Maitlandfield House Hotel in Haddington. The party will feature music and refreshments, and it will run from 4.15pm to 6.45pm. Please see the enclosed flier for full details and how to book.
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Public Partnership Forum – Open Meetings
The NHS is setting up a new body, the Public Partnership Forum, for the public
to have a greater influence over the planning and development of local health services.
Six events have been organised in each of the main towns of East Lothian to explain more and encourage people to become involved. We have enclosed a leaflet giving full details of these meetings.
For more information please contact Claire Burrell on (0131) 536 8025 or
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One-Off Aromatherapy Sessions
You may recall we have had an Aromatherapy student, Margot, on placement from
Napier
University for the past couple of months offering a series of treatments
to some of our carers. Margot has now finished her university course, but still
needs to carry out some more treatments in order to achieve her professional qualification.
We are delighted that she has offered to do this at the Carers Centre, and so we now have 12 one-off sessions over
the next few weeks. If you would like to have an Aromatherapy treatment please
give us a call to make an appointment.
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Laura Ashley – Writing research
We have been contacted by a student at Leeds University,
Laura Ashley, who is doing some research into the benefits of expressive writing on people’s health. She is testing out the theory that writing for just 20 minutes on 3 days can improve people’s mood,
stress management and even immune functioning. Laura is focussing her studies
on carers, and is looking for carers who are willing to write a short piece for 20 minutes on 3 days. No travel is required and materials will be posted to you to complete in your own time at home. There is even a £250 prize for one participant drawn at random! Please
contact Laura on 0113 343 6694 for more information or e-mail:
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VOCAL training courses
VOCAL, the Edinburgh Carers Centre, has a range of training courses coming up, which are open to
carers in East Lothian. The topics are: ‘Caring for a Child with Special Needs’ (10th
May – 28th June, 10am – 1pm), ‘Thinking about Direct Payments’ (6th June –
27th June), ‘Thinking about the Adults with Incapacity Act’ (19th June – 10th
July, 10.30am – 1pm) and ‘Thinking about Housing (6th July – 19th July, 10am –
1pm). For more information about any of these, please call Jane on (0131) 622
6666.
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Introducing the Access Team
East Lothian Council have re-organised the way they provide Adult Community Care
Services, setting up two new teams to help people get a more responsive service. The
Access Team will provide a “one-door” service for all new community care enquiries and can be contacted on a Lo-Call
number 0845 603 1576. The Complex Care Team will work with people who need longer-term
support.
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Care 21: The Future of Unpaid Care in Scotland
Lewis Macdonald, Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care gave the Scottish
Executive’s response to the report "Care 21: The Future of Unpaid Care in Scotland"
on 24th April. If you would like a Summary Briefing of this response please give
us a call. Together with other carer organisations across Scotland we will now be lobbying the Executive for the extra
resources needed to make carers’ hopes become a reality.
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Carers Advocacy Service – volunteer advocates wanted!
VOCAL, the Edinburgh Carers Centre, runs an Advocacy Service which covers the whole of the
Lothian area including East
Lothian. The Carers Advocacy Service works to support carers in expressing
their views and feelings by offering one to one advocacy. The Service is looking
to increase the number of volunteer advocates it has in East Lothian. If you would be interested in taking on this challenging and rewarding role please call Diane on (0131)
622 7625. Full training will be given, with the next training course starting
on 8th June.
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Carers of East Lothian Charity Number SC027000 |
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