Read Susan, Betty and Sarah’s stories to find out some of the ways we are able to provide help and support to the carers of people living with sight and hearing loss.
Susan
Susan initially contacted our helpline for advice finding an accessible phone that her mum could use. After discussing these issues, we continued the call for another hour and Susan went on to explain about all the care and support she was providing for her mother and how tiring and emotionally draining it was for her.
Susan said that ‘no one understood what it’s like, it’s so demanding and time consuming and that my life is no longer my life’.
Our helpline advisor took the time to listen to Susan, empathised with her and showed understanding of what she was going through. We also followed this up via email with information about a careers assessment and additional support for her mother.
Susan was thankful for being listened to and said ‘talking to you has been much more beneficial than talking to my doctor’.
Betty
Betty was caring for her husband Jon, who has dementia. She was put in touch with us by one of our volunteers who was concerned about her. Betty explained that she was struggling to cope and that the ambulance and the police had been called several times as his aggressive behavior had frightened her. Before the dementia he was a quiet man and never generally got cross. Seeing him behave aggressively was heartbreaking for Betty. He was no longer the man she knew and she was struggling to deal with this.
During a recent hospital stay, when the hospital rang Betty to say he could come home, Betty said ‘I felt really guilty as i didn’t want him home because I was scared of him and what he may do to himself, me and our home’.
Our advisor spoke to Betty about a range of options. These included a reassessment for Jon, a careers assessment for Betty and additional paid support along with support from Dementia UK. We agreed to help Betty contact her Local Authority’s Adult Social Care Team to requested this support as she said she would struggle to do this.
Betty has no family or friends she could speak to. She really wanted to be able to talk to someone about what she was going through. We supported Betty to make contact with her local carers trust to join a group as well as encouraging her to call our helpline whenever she needed to talk.
Sarah
Sarah cares for her sister who is a member of Deafblind UK. She rang us to book our holiday caravan. Sarah’s sister has learning disabilities as well as sight and hearing loss and is cared for and lives with her sister and their mother. Their mother has dementia so Sarah also cares for her. Sarah finds it extremely difficult caring for two people 24/7 as someone always needs her help. While her sister is at our caravan, Sarah is able to have a slight break by only needing to care for her mother. When Sarah’s sister comes home from the caravan she is much more relaxed.
To find out more about our support for carers please click here.
