“Trust families and work with them”
- Written by: Lynn Williams — Unpaid Carer
- Published: 5th June 2018
We asked Lynn for her views at our Action: The 2nd Health and Social Care Integration Event.
At our Annual Conference, Action: The 2nd Health and Social Care Integration Event on 4 June 2018, we interviewed a range of delegates to monitor their opinions on the conference and their thoughts on how to implement action in health and social care.
Lynn was one of our nine speakers at our event this year, and she received a lot of praise from delegates for her passionate and heartfelt talk which highlighted the experiences and realities of being an unpaid carer.
We asked Lynn:
Why is action needed in health and social care?
Lynn – For me from the perspective of unpaid carers is that we clearly don’t have a chance to influence, really influence, the things that matter to us the most or the services that impact on our lives so we have to look at how we change that and make sure that those who are taking integration forward actually begin to properly work with families, because often families know what’s best. We have to be able to have these services let go a bit and trust families and work with them. We understand the challenges that public services are facing so it’s really a chance for us to be working together to then recognise that to achieve the outcomes we want for families for wellbeing and for communities to better to stick together is that we listen to what families want and work with them to achieve that.
If you were to prioritise one thing (and money and resource was no object) to action what would it be and how would it improve health and social care?
Lynn – We have heard today about the fact that the people who are involved in integration joint board which oversee health and social care integration, is that people who are patients and who are carers probably have a vote on the boards, because to be at the table and not really have the chance to change or to influence things is kind of pointless. For me as well, we stop the jargon and we stop patronising families, that’s the best way to describe it. The officials who are involved actually listen. We talk about engagement but we don’t ever actually listen to what families want and I think that needs to change too.
You can also watch Lynn’s interview on the ALLIANCE YouTube channel (this link will take you away from our website).
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