THE THURROCK Coalition is hosting an upcoming public “hustings” event, entitled the “Commitment to Care in Thurrock” on Thursday 24th April 2014 from 6:30pm for a 7pm start to 8:30pm at The Beehive, West Street, Grays.
Thurrock Coalition follows the Social Model of Disability and aims to improve the lives of disabled and older people living in Thurrock by seeking to remove environmental, attitudinal and physical barriers that exist in society
Format of the evening:
Each representative from a political party (as well as Independents) will be asked to speak for two minutes on the following topic:
‘A Commitment to Care in Thurrock – what does this mean for a budget constrained Thurrock Council.
There will then be time for representatives to answer questions in a question time chaired style from the audience, discuss and debate issues relating to the future provision and delivery of Adult Social Care Services in Thurrock.
Your Thurrock will be invited to film the event.
Thurrock in Context:
There are 91,000 people aged 18-65 in Thurrock, around 10% have some type of physical impairment. The majority live in the community with support from paid or unpaid carers and many with none/do not use social care services.
There are 487 people with a learning disability in Thurrock. 106 people are cared for in residential homes. 1 in 6 people in Thurrock have a long term illness; proportionately higher than the regional (16.21%) lower than the national (18.23%) average. Furthermore, poor quality of life through physical illness is known to be closely related to mental health issues.
People with mental health issues are twice as likely as the general population to experience a long term illness or disability. In terms of an aging population, current projections indicate the total number of people aged 65 and over will reach 26,800 by 2020.
Taken in the round, Adult Social Care funding, provision and delivery is increasingly vital to disabled people, older people, their families and carers.
