Authors: Maxine Griffiths
Year: 2019
Event: 2019 TheMHS Conference
Subject: A Carer's Charter of Resilience
Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers
Abstract:
Biography:
Maxine is CEO of Mental Health Carers Tas, a systemic organisation representing mental health carers. She has expensive CEO experience in past roles with Council on the Ageing Tas, Lifleine Tas, Volunteering Tas and Advocacy Tas. Maxine's lived experience as a ;long-term family carer for her foster son who lives with multiple disabilities offers unique insight to lived experience of caring in a world where the role is sometimes misunderstood and at times disregarded.
In October 2016 in Mental Health Week mental health carers joined together and developed a Charter of Resilience. The Charter contains reflections, thoughts and promises from a range of carers across Tas. The group wanted to think outside their usual label of 'carer', they wanted to look at themselves as a person/s outside of caring, outside of responsibility for others.
Carers were invited to reflect on what keeps them resilient.
The Carer's Charter of Resilience with its 10 promises will challenge service providers to consider carers as whole human beings who have lives beyond caring. Conference participants will be asked to consider how, in their working and leadership roles, can remind carers, families and friends of their resilience. Especially when times are tough.
Healthy communities start with healthy individuals. Within communities there are thousands of mental health carers who donate their time, money, homes, emotional and physical support to people they love. People living with mental illness.
How can we listen to the Carer's Charter of Resilience and live it within our work culture. How can we ensure that policies and practices understand the Charter and what it means for families and carers?
Learning Objectives
Learning Objective 1: the audience will understand how to support families and carers to recognise what keeps them resilient.
Learning Objective 2: There is evidence to suggest that mental health families and carers if not supported are at risk of developing a mental illness themselves. The Charter identifies themes and points of resilience for mental health carers.
References
Mental Health Carers who attended the workshops are the authors of the Charter.
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