Do you or someone you know, support someone who would not manage without help?
Every day, 6,000 people in the United Kingdom become carers (Carers UK). Whether that is the result of an accident, surgery, addiction, a diagnosis, worsening health condition or any other change of circumstance in the life of the person they find themselves caring for. Becoming a carer is rarely something that people have had an opportunity to plan for. Carers may find themselves having to come to terms with their new caring role whilst having conversations with health and social care professionals, working out how to manage their caring role around their employment, and investigating how they might fund immediate and future costs of caring.
In many cases the transition is so slow that it can take carers years to realise the extent to which they are providing care and how much it is impacting their own life. There are an estimated 18,000 unpaid carers in the London Borough of Richmond alone (Carers Strategy 2020) but many carers do not realise there is support available to them, let alone have any knowledge of their rights and entitlements, which is why it is important to recognise carers. A better public awareness of caring can lead to more conversations and more carers being identified, validated and supported in their caring roles.
Today is Carers Rights Day, an annual awareness raising event that brings organisations together to help carers in the local community understand their rights and learn how and where to get the help and support they are entitled to.
This year Richmond Carers Centre has worked with Richmond and Wandsworth Council’s Front Door Project to deliver sessions to carers at Crossroads Care Richmond and Kingston, Integrated Neurological Services and Richmond Borough Mind. These sessions are designed to look at finding solutions to caring-specific challenges and how technology can play a part in those solutions. Richmond Carers Centre provides information on Carers Rights and Entitlements on it’s website HERE, which can also be downloaded as a PDF document HERE. Carers UK produces a Carers Guide called Looking After Someone, which can be found on their website HERE.
Richmond Carers Centre supports young and adult unpaid carers living in or caring for someone living in the London Borough of Richmond, which stretches from Hampton to Barnes. It offers free and confidential advice, information and emotional support plus a range of other services for unpaid carers from the age of 5 and up. If you are looking after someone who would not manage without your support, or you know someone who is, you can contact the Carers Support Line on 020 8867 2380 or email support@richmondcarers.org to speak to a carers support worker.
