My working dayMichelle Harrison is manager of carers services for the HSE in Galway
My role as manager of carers services involves leading the development and provision of accessible, effective and efficient localised support services for carers in Galway city, county and the islands.
The role incorporates both a strategic approach, which involves establishing partnerships with statutory and voluntary organisations in the development and delivery of services for carers and in influencing policy development in this area, and an operational element, which involves the local establishment and delivery of services for carers in Galway.
I start work at 9am and finish at approximately 6pm. This varies considerably as some of the services for carers are provided outside of these working hours.
When I arrive in the carers department in the morning, I begin by prioritising my work schedule for the day. This usually begins by processing urgent queries from carers, which can relate to a myriad of problems or concerns, such as difficulties in applying for benefits and entitlements, concerns over being refused a particular benefit, such as carers' allowance, problems in accessing additional home support services and so on.
I usually then begin to process the urgent referrals that I have received from other disciplines, such as from social workers, public health nurses or disability services.
I spend time managing the budget for my department and at this time of year, I plan what initiatives can be provided for the year within the baseline budget available and formulate business cases for planned initiatives that require development funding.
I am currently undertaking two research studies, the first of which is an evaluation of the home care package scheme. The second is aimed at identifying deficits in services for people with dementia/Alzheimer's disease and for their carers, and I am finalising these two reports at the present time.
In an average day, I usually have a few meetings to attend, such as case conferences, the older persons planning group, the home care package steering group, meetings with partnership service providers and so on.
My typical daily work will also involve finalising details of carers whom I have approved for an in-home respite service. The database of carers in Galway city, county and the islands who have registered with my department is updated daily.
The training service and support group service is an integral part of my role and usually at some stage each day, I spend time developing training courses and support groups for carers.
Obviously, we have to work within a budget so sometimes it can be a challenge to prioritise all those requiring our service. However, we do endeavour to provide the best service to the maximum number of clients and families we work with.
I enjoy being proactive and developing new services for carers and while this may be challenging in the stage of inception, it is most rewarding when the initiative/service is established and is benefiting the carers immensely.
The Government made a commitment in the national agreement Towards 2016 to develop a national carers strategy and a working group is being established.
A national carers strategy is potentially the single biggest policy development for carers in the history of the State and I believe that this will be a seminal development for services for carers in Ireland. From a local perspective, we need to continue to provide respite services to facilitate carers to take a break from their caring role.
- In conversation with Michelle McDonagh