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Carers Week 2018 – 11th – 17th June 2018

Carers Week 2018 is now over! This year, over 1,300 events were held nationally and 466 people and organisations pledged their support for carers.

At Caring for Carers, we led lots of fun activities for carers and their families to attend. Please see the Carers Week 2018 report here

Carers Week is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring, highlight the challenges carers face and recognise the contribution they make to families and communities throughout the UK.

This year Carers UK looked at all the ways we can support carers to stay Healthy and Connected. Building communities which support carers to look after their loved ones well, while recognising that they are individuals with health and wellbeing needs of their own.

Carers Week Report 2018

This Carers Week, Carers UK released their report about caring. The research reveals:

  • Almost three quarters (72%) of carers in the UK said they had suffered mental ill health as a result of caring, while well over half (61%) said their physical health had worsened.
  • Unless more support is provided, national charities are warning that the UK’s carers won’t be healthy enough to care for loved ones in the future.
  • Over half of carers in the UK said they expect their physical (58%) and mental (57%) health and well-being to get worse in the next two years.
  • Two in five (43%) carers said that they expect to be able to provide less care or no care in the future because of poor physical health. One third of carers (35%) felt that poor mental health would mean they will be able to provide less or no care in the future.
  • Older people, especially those over 75 years old, were most likely to say they expected to be able to provide less or no care in the future because of poor physical health (54% of over 65s and 59% of over 75s).

Main stressors for carers were reported as:

  • Carers were most likely to say that the impact of stress and anxiety on their own health was their main worry about the impact of caring on their own health and wellbeing.
  • Carers named the main stressors contributing most to their stress and anxiety as not getting enough sleep, providing hands on care for the person they care for, and managing financially.

Read the full report here