Emily Holzhausen OBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Carers UK, believes we need to think and plan differently for people with unpaid caring responsibilities. Carers Week is an opportunity to look at the scale of caring responsibilities and consider how to we can create more effective support for carers.
This week is Carers Week (5-11 June) when Carers UK and others are seeking to raise awareness of the UK’s estimated 5.7 million unpaid carers looking after older, disabled or ill relatives or friends. We're delighted to welcome back unpaid carer representative and dedicated champion of their cause, Fatima Khan-Shah, with this personal take on Carers Week.
It’s Carers Week (5-11 June), an opportunity to not only ‘recognise and support unpaid carers in the community’ (this year’s theme), but also reflect on our personal and professional relationships to caring.
Tracey thought her fiancé was struggling with his father’s death but realised later he was experiencing psychosis. She describes how caring for him has brought them even closer together. Marking Carers Week, this wonderful blog, brought to us by Rethink Mental Illness, reminds us that, while unpaid carers are doing an amazing job supporting loved ones, they need support and understanding too.
Carers Week has always been about increasing visibility and support for those who give their time, energy and commitment to care for family, friends and loved ones. Which is why, as we emerge from the privations of the pandemic, this year’s theme of making carers more ‘visible, valued and supported’ has never been more relevant.
Being an unpaid carer during a global pandemic takes its toll, as does its aftermath. The impact is not just physical and emotional, it’s financial too. From speaking with her networks of unpaid carers, Fatima Khan-Shah knows these issues are front and centre of their minds during this year’s Carers Week.
Caring can be as rewarding as it is challenging. Right now, many unpaid carers are dealing with even greater challenges as the coronavirus outbreak continues to affect all our lives. This year's Carers Week: Make Caring Visible, throws that fact into sharp relief.
With over 6.5 million carers across the UK, Lisa Smith, Research and Development Manager at Research in Practice for Adults (RiPfA), believes we need to make supporting this unpaid workforce a priority. RiPfA has been examining current social work practice and talking …