Sarah’s Story
How Sharing the Caring helped a parent carer
Sarah is a parent carer for her 9 year old daughter Lauren who has Down syndrome. Lauren attends a special school five days a week. Sarah also has a 13 year old daughter and an 11 year old son.
Lauren is very demanding of her mum’s time when she is with her, and Sarah was concerned that she did not get to spend as much time with her other two children as she would like because of this.
Sarah mentioned her concerns to Lauren’s teacher who told her about the Young Carers project at the North Tyneside Carers Centre.
Sarah contacted the Centre and spoke to the young carers worker who told her about some of the activities the Centre offered to young carers and the Sharing the Caring service.
Sarah was referred to Social Services by Carers Centre staff and received a Carers assessment with a social worker.
The outcome of Sarah’s carer’s assessment was that she is entitled to 4 hours of carer respite per week.
Sarah now has a weekly visit from the same support worker from Sharing the Caring. The support worker takes Lauren out every Thursday evening for her tea and they visit places like the cinema, bowling alley and the park.
Lauren really enjoys her time out each week with her support worker and Sarah has the opportunity to spend quality time with her two older children each week.
