What are carer friendly communities?
It’s Carers Week 2016 and this year Carers UK is focusing the campaign on how we can build carer friendly communities.
A new report has been published by the charity based on responses from over 6000 carers and former carers to a survey in March and April 2016.
Carers UK asked carers about their experiences of being a carer and in particular how much support they feel they receive from their local communities and from society in general.
Building Carer Friendly Communities
Many carers responded that they feel they have to fight for recognition of their caring roles from the wider community.
3 in 4 carers said they do not feel their caring role is understood or recognised by their community.
The survey asked about common issues such as healthcare, employment, education opportunities and being an older carer. In all of those areas of life carers reported they felt disadvantaged.
The survey showed that 33% of carers who also try to hold down a job said they work for employers who have no policies in place to support them and 72% of working carers had either given up working or reduced their working hours.
50% of carers in education felt they are unable to progress with their education and 48% reported they had given up their studies.
In the case of older carers 61% said they have left a personal healthcare problem untreated because they have difficulty in accessing healthcare due to their caring roles.
What more can be done to build carer friendly communities?
Employers and business leaders have a definite role to play. The more the business community can do to support carers the more that public awareness will grow.
We offer courses for employers and other organisations to train them in providing better support for carers in the workplace and within their communities.
Our workshops and seminars explain how to create a culture of awareness and demonstrate practical ways in which better support can be provided by organisations without impacting negatively on business development.
To find out more about our training for businesses follow this link.
You can read the Carers UK report here
Image courtesy of Carers UK