Putting a face to unmet need
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Healthwatch East Sussex undertook research to explore people’s social care needs and how they were being met.
Working in collaboration with three partner organisations, Citizens Advice in Eastbourne, Diversity Resource International (DRI) and Care for the Carers, fifteen people were identified and interviewed. They were asked about their experience of social care and the impact of needed social care. People were drawn from three groups, namely unpaid carers, individuals from an ethnic minority background and people on low incomes.
The case studies developed from people’s experiences describe:
- The significant impact on unpaid carers in terms of their health and wellbeing and their relationships and lives.
- Their difficulties in understanding and navigating adult social care systems and the lack of support available to carers from that system. These difficulties were mentioned by those from an ethnic minority background but also highlighted as an experience shared by others.
- A desire for closer joint working across agencies in order to effectively support people with multiple needs that may cut across multiple service boundaries and responsibilities such as health, social services, housing and finance.
HWES has made a series of recommendations from their findings, which take into account the constraints placed upon East Sussex Adult Social Care by the national system and the financial constraints under which it operates.