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48% of parents caring for a child with profound or multiple learning disabilities receive no support with care tasks from outside the family

(Different Types of Care Different Types of Carer – The Stationery Office 1994)

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News

Crossroads Care opens memory cafe in New Eltham

CARERS, staff and their loved ones all turned up for the official launch of a charity’s memory café last week.

Along with finding out about the Crossroads Care service, there were many tributes to the charity which offers short breaks for adult carers.

As well as providing respite, staff can help with problems like finding someone to walk the dog and, in one case, even dealing with a bed bug infestation.

Already running a self-referral scheme in Lewisham and a Caring Café every Saturday at the M-Eating Place, Rushey Green, for people looking after vulnerable adults, it now has a similar service in Eltham.

The Memory Lane Café runs from 10.30am to 2.30pm each week at Middle Park Community Centre. People can drop in and leave those they care for at the café, or just spend time there.

Chief executive Anne Thompson explained: “It’s an opportunity to talk to someone with a sympathetic ear and to form new friendships.”

Therapies including music and massage are available, along with methods to help people with dementia remember past experiences.

Respite referrals are made by social services but people can drop in to the cafes.
For details, call 020 8690 8554 or email info@crossroadscare.gl.org.uk

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“I was lucky to find them.”	Roy Pack, 65, of Alderwood Road, Eltham, is a full time carer to his 90-year-old dad James who suffers from dementia and multiple complex injuries. Mr Pack, a former Arsenal and Portsmouth professional footballer said: “Crossroads give us skilled people - Wayne and Michael. “They go through his whole life history with him - his time in the postal union, back through the war years and when he was a kid. “If I was just doing that myself all the time, number one, I’d get bored out of my mind and, number two, with dementia you need to see different people. You have to communicate.” He said: “I was lucky to find them. More people should know who Crossroads are and what they do.”
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“An absolute lifesaver.”	June Forde, 72, looks after husband John, 87, who suffers from Parkinson’s and dementia. She gets two sessions of support during the week. She said: “It means I can go out and he takes my husband to new Eltham Social Club so he can have a drink with his friends. “I can’t tell you what it means. It’s an absolute lifesaver.” Mrs Forde’s friend Linda La Merle, 75, also uses the service for her dementia-sufferer husband Claud, 85. She said: “We have someone called Carol who’s very fond of him. She just comes and keeps him company.” Mrs La Merle explained: “You lose your independence as a carer. That sounds dramatic but really you can no longer function as you used to.”
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“Carers are doing it 24/7.”	Service manager Sharon Hutton has worked at Crossroads for 11 years, starting off as a support worker but now making sure all its carers get the help they need. She said: “Carers are doing it 24/7. They know we’re coming to look after the person they care for so they can turn off for those few hours and just have a break and relax. “We can take them out, we can go to the park, we can go shopping.” The organisation has around 40 support workers providing between four and six hours of respite per person per week. With many of those they look after affected by dementia, a lot of time is spent on creating ‘memory books’ - scrap books which take them through their past.

Crossroads Greenwich & Lewisham Ltd is a company limited by guarantee registered in England number 3276204. Registered charity number 1062951