News & Events
MND Association welcomes new carers strategy
18 June 2008
A new Government strategy launched this month to improve the lives of carers has been welcomed by the MND Association.
The strategy is underpinned by £255 million extra funding and aims to support, help and improve the lives of the 5.2 million carers in England and Wales.
The MND Association welcomes the extra funding for respite provision, annual health checks for carers and extra training for health and social care professionals to better recognise and support carers. We also welcome the announcement of pilots to examine how the NHS can better support carers. However, we would like the strategy to go further.
We believe an annual health check is not enough for those caring for someone with MND and would like to see more regular health checks. We also believe the health checks should be ‘outcome focussed’ so that the lives of carers improve following the health check.
We welcome the Government’s commitment to encourage partnerships between health, social care and the third sector by running pilots to provide flexible support for carers. We will be looking at how the Association can become involved in the pilots.
The Carers Strategy also states that further, more specific policies to support those caring for someone at the end of life will be outlined in the End of Life Care Strategy, which is due to be published shortly. We will be looking at this in detail once it is published.
The strategy is underpinned by £255 million extra funding and aims to support, help and improve the lives of the 5.2 million carers in England and Wales.
The MND Association welcomes the extra funding for respite provision, annual health checks for carers and extra training for health and social care professionals to better recognise and support carers. We also welcome the announcement of pilots to examine how the NHS can better support carers. However, we would like the strategy to go further.
We believe an annual health check is not enough for those caring for someone with MND and would like to see more regular health checks. We also believe the health checks should be ‘outcome focussed’ so that the lives of carers improve following the health check.
We welcome the Government’s commitment to encourage partnerships between health, social care and the third sector by running pilots to provide flexible support for carers. We will be looking at how the Association can become involved in the pilots.
The Carers Strategy also states that further, more specific policies to support those caring for someone at the end of life will be outlined in the End of Life Care Strategy, which is due to be published shortly. We will be looking at this in detail once it is published.
