Tipperary family carers avail of opportunity to connect with a vital range of services

A forum designed to connect family carers with groups in the community that provide vital services was held in Clonmel.
The forum, which was held at Hotel Minella, was facilitated by the Clonmel branch of Family Carers Ireland and the event was funded by the National Lottery.

“It was a good opportunity for carers to become more aware of the scale of the services that are available in the community to help people,” said Cllr Richie Molloy, Manager of the Clonmel branch of Family Carers Ireland.
Carers availed of the opportunity to meet the people responsible for providing valuable services in the community.

Among the groups to have stands at the event were An Garda Síochána, the HSE, Alone, Age Friendly Ireland, Slainte Care, Family Carers Ireland, Tipperary County Library Service and a Social Prescribing service.
“There was a lot of information available for carers to take on board and hopefully it will help them access services in the future. The forum will have helped carers make a personal connection with people who are providing these services,” said Cllr Richie Molloy.

Emma O’Brien, an occupational therapist and Mary Ryan a nurse, who work with the Living Well With Dementia project that is based in Clonmel, were also present to inform carers on the day.
Emma O’Brien told the carers that were present that the stands set up at the event comprised of people from key services in the community who wanted to help.

Paul Devane, Tipperary County Council, informed carers about the services offered in local libraries that would be of help to carers including the availability of a tablet service which carers would take out to use on a three month trial basis to familiarise themselves with computer technology.
Tracey Thompson from Age Friendly Ireland informed carers that she worked on a daily basis with people aged over 65 and living at home.

She assisted them in their every day lives in the community so that they could continue to live at home.
Garda Claire Murphy and Garda Damien Condon also informed carers of how they were there to help them as part of their community policing remit. They were available to offer advice on personal security for themselves and also for their homes.

Deirdre O’Connor, Alone co-ordinator for south and north Tipperary, told carers that Alone was there to help people and advise them on their entitlements and their security.
Mary Anne Hayes told the carers that she provided a social prescribing service from her Kickham Street base in Clonmel. The service provided a link to support adults to connect with community groups and services.

Mark Darmody, an advocate for autism services, also addressed the carers.
He told them that advocacy was important in that it maintained pressure on agencies to provide services.
Mark Darmody, father of campaigner Cara Darmody, said carers should be better looked after by the Government and he wanted to see a complaints process set up so that people could voice their issues with the HSE.