National Carers Week 2016

National Carers Week, which starts on Monday, will highlight the challenges faced by those who look after family members and friends.

Derbyshire Carers Association will ensure Carers Week (6-12 June) highlights carer issues in Derbyshire through events, stands and our new carers stories.

The carers stories shine a light on the challenges, stresses, frustrations, joys and rewards of a caring role.

Carer: Janet
Janet has been a source of inspiration as a volunteer at DCA and has cared for many years for her partner while juggling many other commitments. An online carer video, in Janet’s own words, explains how she came to be a carer, her awareness of being a carer during the last 8 years and how it changed her life. Janet also talks about being in the best position to care for her husband, the support DCA have offered and how this has helped.

Janet, who cares for her husband with MS, discusses the change to her life and day to day activity such as the difficulties making plans.

DCA are seen as an extended family to Janet and always contactable and available for instance as support for a meeting at the hospital. Janet mentions, “you are not alone on this journey” as Derbyshire carers are always there and recommended DCA to a neighbour.
These online stories offer a simple, practical way to share experiences and raise carers’ profiles to a potentially huge audience. It shows that caring can be isolating, stress inducing and financially difficult, but with suitable support it can be very rewarding too.

By providing unpaid care for someone, carers are thought to save the UK economy £119 billion a year and it’s thought that three out of five people will be carers at some point in their life.

An ageing population coupled with rising life expectancies for those with illness or disability mean care is a huge and growing issue for society as a whole.

Janet’s full interview and all our carers stories are available here.