Carers Week 2021
This week is Carers Week and is all about celebrating our local carers, raising awareness of the challenges they face and recognising the contribution they make to families and communities with the theme is ‘making caring visible and valued’.
There are approximately 34,000 people providing unpaid care in Coventry. The estimated value of the care they provide is 680 million per year. Now imagine how much more that might have been during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have seen a real community effort pull in Coventry in the last year but the actions of unpaid carers are often not seen or heard of, a silent group of people who just care for those they love the most behind closed doors.
During the course of the pandemic some carers roles we know became extremely intense, they may not have be able to leave the person they care for any period of time, had to shield alongside the person they care for and the usual friends and family who play a supportive role had to stay away. This may have meant that many carers went without a break for many months.
The Carers Trust Heart of England will be hosting more than 30 activities and events throughout the week Monday 7th - Friday 11th June, including walk and talks, mindfulness activities, healthy lifestyles, gardening and practical help and advice sessions on caring responsibilities.
In order to recognise these additional demands on carers, in September 2020 the Cabinet Member for Adult Services approved funding for the creation of an ‘enhanced carers support offer’ to be in place through Carers Trust Heart of England, who already support Carers with information, advice and the provision of short breaks. This enhanced support offer included a range of interventions to improve carer resilience across areas including physical and mental health, digital and use of technology, coping with grief and loss, support in the workplace, hardship and poverty, young carers and supporting the specific needs of black and minority ethnic carers.
This enhanced support offer has started to provide much needed support for carers across a number of areas while they have been living with the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. This support has now been extended to support carers further during the roadmap out of lockdown.
To find out more visit the Carers Trust Heart of England webpages.
This week is all about increasing the visibility of unpaid carers.
Councillor Mal Mutton, portfolio holder for Adult Services at Coventry City Council said:
“This year Carers Week is all about making the contribution unpaid carers have made and continue to make to society during the Covid-19 pandemic ‘visible’ and shining a light on the role that they play to support their families.
“I want to personally thank Coventry’s unpaid carers for the hard work, compassion and the selflessness that they practice every day supporting the ones they love.
“We recognise this awful pandemic has affected carers more than most, and it can often feel socially isolating, and caring for someone can heavily impact physical health and mental wellbeing. That’s why it is crucial carers in our community know that we are still here for them if they need help and support especially during the road map out of lockdown.”
How can we support carers during the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Check out our Carers COVID-19 pages for FAQs and our information leaflet for carers.
Carers Bulletin
We continue to circulate a carers bulletin on a monthly basis (last day of the month). This provides a regular update for carers / professionals are all agencies approaches to supporting carers.
You can subscribe at www.coventry.gov.uk/carersbulletin.