REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE CARING FOR CARERS IRELAND
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE CARING FOR CARERS IRELAND 20TH ANNUAL NATIONAL RESPITE WEEKEND AND CONFERENCE
Dia dhíbh go léir inniu. Tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo libh ar an ócáid speisialta seo. Míle bhuíochas díbh as an gcuireadh agus an fáilte a thug sibh dom. It is good to be here in Dún Laoghaire at the start of your 20th annual respite weekend and conference. Thank you for that wonderful welcome and thank you to Mary McMahon for the invitation to be with you today.
I recently attended the launch of the European Year of Volunteering and today I have the privilege of opening this conference of undoubtedly the greatest army of unsung volunteers in the country. Each one of you represents many thousands more in homes in every parish and province whose lives are consumed by the care of loved ones who are ill, frail, or disabled. The care you give is absolutely essential to their well-being, their dignity, their independence, their enjoyment of life. It is give not for reward or thanks but because where the need exists you step up and take responsibility out of love and out of an abiding sense of duty of care. The work is often difficult and relentless. It eats into your free time, it can consume your life, your energy and even your health. It can be lonely work that goes unnoticed except inside the immediate family. But it is the very essence and epitome of human decency, the kind of goodness and kindness of which Mark Twain said - is the kind of language “which the deaf can hear and the blind can see’.
I meet carers regularly around the country and each story is harrowing and radically life altering. The young mother who gets a stroke, the child born with a serious disability, the happy high-achieving young professional with an acquired brain injury, the car crash that turns a sporty teenager into a paraplegic wheel-chair user, the elderly parent who slips into dementia, the spouse who is overwhelmed by mental illness, the youngster who self-harms, the list of life events and circumstances are long indeed which demand that someone steps up and takes responsibility for continuous and often long time care of another person. There’s often no time to plan, to get ready, to prepare as your life is unceremoniously wrenched into a new direction and a new set of tough realities which impact heavily on your home, relationships, finances, your own health and well being and on your social activity and pastimes. Life may or may not have prepared you for such a major undertaking and still prepared or not, you dig deep into the well of your resolve and resources and you get on with the job of caring - not for thanks or recognition or reward but as an investment of yourself in the improvement of the life of another human being.
What is more the life of a carer does not stand still - carers grow older and less energetic, those they care for may become even more dependent, family supports may strengthen as children grow up and share the burden or weaken as they move on with their adult lives in other parts of the country or the world. Planning for the future is far from easy because the future has a way of surprising and challenging us anew. It is knowing that, that makes you gather together to create structures and back-up services that help you ride out lifes ups and downs. On this day let me at least offer you a heartfelt thank you for your work as carers, for your advocacy on behalf of carers and those they care for and for the way in which you have educated the public about the issues society needs to face up to. Investment in the wellbeing of carers is itself a very important issue for the carer who is drained to the point of utter exhaustion is likely to become a problem rather than a problem-solver and we need an army of such problem-solvers.
Caring for Carers is such an important organisation for it has created a support infrastructure for carers that lets them know they are not alone, there is support, information, advice, respite, sociability, friendship, fun, an understanding and a listening ear, and a chance to contribute to improving the services our society provides for carers and cared for. This organisation is an essential antidote to the isolation that can so easily confront carers.
It is hard to believe that seven years have passed since a group from this wonderful organisation came to visit me in Áras an Uachtaráin but in that time a tremendous amount of good work has been done in caring for the carers. If as Mohandas Gandhi said ‘Action expresses priorities’ then caring for the most vulnerable in our society must be top of our list. You are the people whose lives bear witness to the human capacity for a level of unselfish multi-tasking that demands considerable self-sacrifice and dedication. You bear witness to a value system that often stands in contradiction to the culture of selfish individualism which has cost us so dearly. Sometimes carers are so determinedly focussed on the needs of others that they either forget to look to their own needs or are too embarrassed to mention them. And yet we need our carers to be strong in themselves, well in themselves, contented and fulfilled in themselves for that is when they can do the work of care to the highest levels of excellence that they wish for.
So this weekend plays its part in creating space in the lives of carers to enjoy a refreshing and reenergising break as well as a space where they can share experiences and help one another to chart the best steps to a better future.
When this weekend is over and you go back to your homes I hope you will be renewed and fortified by these precious days and that the benefits will help you in your work of care. May you bring a lot of joy and hope home with you, gifts of friendship and solidarity received from and given to one another over these hard-earned days of rest and reflection.
Is intact an boar ate are sail aguish agues gum gash rat oarfish as todhchaí.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.