Carers

According to Care UK (2018), 1 in 8 adults (around 6.5 million people) are carers

• By 2037, it's anticipated that the number of carers will increase to 9 million.
  
• Every day another 6,000 people take on a caring responsibility – that equals over 2 million people each year.
  
• 58% of carers are women and 42% are men.
  
• Over 1 million people care for more than one person.
  

People providing high levels of care are twice as likely to be permanently sick or disabled

• 72% of carers responding to Carers UK's State of Caring Survey said they had suffered mental ill health as a result of caring.
  
• 61% said they had suffered physical ill health as a result of caring.
  
• Over 1.3 million people provide over 50 hours of care per week.
  

Staggering statistics here, and not all of these people will be at home, they are often working as well as responding to care needs. There are workers who may well be supporting children/grandchildren as well as older relatives. This is a tremendous demand on health & wellbeing and within the workplace it is important to consider that the colleague sitting in front of you may well have other demands on them that create pressure, even if well managed and supported.
Work can be a welcome change from caring requirements and be a source of maintaining contact with the world and create a sense of normality. There are times when things will not run smoothly, i.e. a fall, but this does not mean it is not possible to support this through having open discussions to ensure that there is openness in pro-actively managing the situation for all.
Is there a link that could be made in the workplace to voluntary organisations? Could you link carers with other carers in your workplace so that there is active support and sharing of learning and experiences which could be of real benefit to all concerned. Just some things to think of to support carers maintaining some stability in work whilst managing the demands of caring.
Carers contribute hugely to society and by supporting them we are too, so what can you do to help a carer today?
JC

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