Andrew Clark, University of Greenwich, talks to Carmen Atterano of the Greenwich Carers Centre about how her work helps support people living with dementia and their carers to access resources and services, as well as remaining a part of the local community.
Transcript
Andrew Clark
So, can we start, Carmen, by you telling us who you are and what your role is?
Carmen Atterano
Okay. My name is Carmen Atterano. I work for the Greenwich Carer Centre, based in Charlton. I hold two posts, part-time posts. I’m a dementia lead and advisor and I’m also a carer support officer.
Andrew Clark
Great. And so, could you tell us a little bit more about how you support people impacted by dementia in those two positions?
Carmen Atterano
Okay. As a dementia lead and advisor, I ensure that families, carers and the people they’re caring for, access information from the Centre and throughout the community.
So, basically, keeping them informed. As a carer support officer, I make sure that families, well, the carer and the cared for, are aware of the entitlements that they may benefit from. And also, I encourage them to get involved in some schemes that may facilitate them pay, for example, for less taxis around, to make sure that they get to their appointments without too much stress.
So, because I hold two posts, I have to split my time. So, this is tricky, but it’s manageable. So, that’s because the roles kind of roll into one. At the same time as I’m advising the families after diagnosis and making sure they’re well informed, I’m also making sure that they can get as much as possible in terms of anything that they may need to support their caring role.
Andrew Clark
Thanks, Carmen. And you mentioned that your role sits within the Greenwich Carers Centre. So, could you just explain a little bit what the Greenwich Carers Centre is?
Carmen Atterano
Okay. The Greenwich Carers Centre is a centre that supports unpaid carers. So, anyone that is looking after a loved one, a family member, a neighbour, and who is not receiving any payment for that. And the criteria is for the cared for, the person that they’re caring for, must live in the Greenwich borough. The carer, although, can live anywhere else, any other boroughs, but the cared for must live in Greenwich.
So, we support them by making sure, again, the Carers Centre has a variety of resources and activities that the carers can access. Some of these activities, they are for both carers and cared for, but the emphasis are for carers to obviously look after their wellbeing and make sure that they are taking some appropriate rests and know what’s available, what they can access, and they basically spend some time here if they want.
Andrew Clark
And just going back to the two roles that you told us about, what difference do you think your work in those roles makes to people who are impacted by dementia?
Carmen Atterano
Well, as a dementia advisor, I inform families about the services and resources available in the Centre and within the community. I also make sure that they know that they can access other services. We work in partnership with other organisations.
We also make sure that they are empowering themselves to be able to access these services and also be, how can I say, confident that the journey that they’re going through, which is the dementia journey, can be, well, hopefully be less stressful than when they first started.
Sorry, you asked about the carer support officer’s job as well.
Andrew Clark
Yeah.
Carmen Atterano
The carer support officer’s job, again, is really taking care of the carer. Obviously, in taking care of the carer means we will take care of the cared for as well So making sure that they know that they can possibly be accessing benefits or be financially better off in their journey as well to help them pay for services.
Andrew Clark
And one of the things you talked about was the advice or the support you give to people who are living in the community. And I wondered why you thought it was so important to support people living with dementia to continue to be part of communities
Carmen Atterano
Yeah. Well, I can give you one example that I want to give before I go into the answer is that I lead a dementia-friendly group at the Greenwich Carer Centre. And this idea is to keep the families, well, giving them a space to meet up and continue to perhaps a relationship that they started in one of the courses that are available here at the Centre. So they don’t feel isolated and they don’t feel that they’re alone.
So also by accessing the group, we also offer outings outside the Centre where they can keep socialising and going to places that they may not have been before. And also showing them that, you know, because you are living through dementia or you’re personally looking after living through dementia, it doesn’t mean that you just do that alone. We can support you and the community can support you.
So we make things accessible for them or explain to them there are a lot of places out there they can access. So it’s very important to keep that.
Andrew Clark
Great. Well, thank you so much for explaining a little bit about your role there and the work that you’re doing at the Greenwich Carer Centre. I really appreciate it.
Carmen Atterano
Thank you.