Carers Alliance Formed
Media Release
New Alliance Cares for the Carers
24/11/04
Several dozen national charities have partnered to support the one in five New Zealanders who care for someone who is frail, aged, sick, injured, seriously disabled, or experiencing a mental illness.
The unpaid work of family carers has priceless family and social value, and a minimum annual economic value of over $9 billion, says Chris Mathews, spokesperson for the National Carers Alliance.
"Despite their numbers, carers are not a well recognised community in New Zealand. The Alliance will allow charities and non-government organisations to work strategically to ensure carers' needs are better understood."
Everyone can expect to require family care and support, or to provide it, or to have close links to someone in a caring role during their lives, he says.
The National Carers Alliance was initiated by the charitable trust Carers New Zealand and the recommendation of Baroness Jill Pitkeathley. She was recognised in 1997 for her many years of work for family carers in the United Kingdom, in her then role as chief executive of Carers UK. She is now a Deputy Speaker of the House of LORDS and continues to work closely with carer organisations around the world.
In 1988 Baroness Pitkeathley established the Carers Alliance UK, which still meets regularly to identify priorities for carers and progress these with government, public agencies, and key service providers.
A similar Alliance in the United States has also operated for many years. Its president and CEO, Gail Hunt, will join Baroness Pitkeathley in New Zealand next March to participate in a Caring for the Carers Summit to be held at Te Papa in Wellington.
The National Carers Alliance will meet quarterly. Its first meeting was held today at Parliament, hosted by Ruth Dyson, who has Ministerial responsibilities for disability issues, ACC, senior citizens, labour, health, women's affairs, and child, youth and family services.
Charities that attended the inaugural Alliance meeting, or intend to be involved include Age Concern, Alzheimers New Zealand, Autism NZ, the Brain Injury Association, the Cancer Society, CCS, the Cerebral Palsy Society, the Complex Carers Group, the Cystic Fibrosis Association, Epilepsy NZ, the Head Injury Society, Heart Children, Hospice New Zealand, IHC, Kidney Kids, MS Society, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the NZ Down Syndrome Association, NZORD, Parent to Parent, Parkinsons NZ, Rescare NZ, SAMS, SF NZ, Stroke Foundation, and TOA Pacific.
The Young Carers Forum, whose members are children under 18, will meet formally for the first time in early 2005. Alliance members are nominating young carers to represent their organisations on the Forum, which will be a voting member of the Alliance.
The new Alliance also has strategic links with over 100 organisations providing services and support to family/whanau carers, and to regional carer support networks across New Zealand.
"We can achieve more for carers by working collaboratively than any of us could as individual organisations," says Mr Mathews.
Issues discussed at this week's meeting included policy and legislative directions for carers in New Zealand. In other countries family carers receive non means tested payments which recognise their work. Several countries have implemented Carer Strategies to ensure carers receive appropriate support.
"Working in an Alliance structure will allow the community and charitable sector to work with Government to achieve similar milestones for New Zealand carers," says Mr Mathews.