Hansard

I am grateful to my ex-colleague on the Health and Community Care Committee, Irene Oldfather, for raising the issue of carers. She mentioned a lady whose son had Huntington's chorea. Before I received information recently about a similar case, I had not appreciated how difficult it is for carers when the cared-for person does want strangers coming into the house. If there is one thing that I have learned in the past four years, it is that such things put tremendous pressure on carers, because they feel that they are letting down the cared-for person.

I attended a carers' conference in the Highlands last week and was shocked to discover that there are 18,500 carers in the Highlands. I suppose my image of a carer is of an 84-year-old woman who is at home all day. What I had not appreciated is that 11,000 of the carers in the Highlands are in employment. We often forget that carers can also have jobs. We should look at that situation more widely than the carers strategy does. We should also try to achieve more tolerance, understanding and flexibility from employers for carers. If a carer has been up all night caring for someone, it is not always possible for them to make it to work. Highland Council gave a presentation that showed that, where possible, it is adapting its strategies and work practices. I commend the council for that initiative.

When I knew that I was to speak in the debate, I decided that the most important aspect of it would be respite care. Throughout the four years of the previous session, we ensured that carers and their needs were high on the agenda. We acknowledge that the Executive has an excellent carers strategy. However, as members will know, it is not strategies, initiatives or glossy documents that count, but implementation.

The most moving oral evidence that we heard in the Health and Community Care Committee—I think that my ex-colleagues will agree—was from Isobel Allan, who is a carer. If there had been a star prize for submitting evidence to a committee, it would have gone to her.

Regardless of the commitment across parties in the chamber, and regardless of the good work that we do and the bills and initiatives that we sign up to, we cannot assume that someone out there has the same commitment as we have.

I want to continue to monitor the implementation of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 and of free personal care. Highland Council has already tried to adopt its own eligibility criteria for free personal care. We should not be so naive as to think that because we pass legislation in the Parliament and a glossy brochure is published, things will happen magically at the chalk face—they do not.

The second issue that I want to raise was mentioned by the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care in response to a question from Wendy Alexander about the disabled. I refer to direct payments. Many carers do not know that direct payments exist. Many councils do not particularly want them to know, because direct payments give carers the power, freedom and choice to buy in appropriate services that they know are best for the cared-for person. Many councils regard direct payments as a threat to their monopoly provision of services.

Like others, I endorse the excellent work of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers. However, I could find no mention of direct payments in the documents that I examined today. When I was at a multiple sclerosis seminar last year, I mentioned the help that was being provided to carers through direct payments. No one had heard of them. We must all do more to give carers the autonomy to buy in proper health care.

My final point arises from a case that was brought to one of my surgeries in Inverness last week. It concerns mental health problems combined with drug and alcohol addiction. In the case to which I refer, the parents of a 29-year-old woman were not allowed to be told whether she turned up for appointments and did not know what medication she was receiving. They were told that their daughter had a mental illness, but they did not know whether she attended the day centre. They wanted to help their daughter and to be given advice, rather than have to step on eggshells. This was a very sad case; eventually, the daughter became so violent that the police had to remove her from the house. Her parents wanted to help, but information was withheld from them and they were excluded from contributing to their daughter's health.

I congratulate Irene Oldfather on securing this debate and am pleased to have had another opportunity to talk about carers.