Carers Wales Bulletin

Health and Wellbeing
Written By Cath Haines

Welcome to this first Carers Wales Bulletin. We have created this bulletin to give a brief snapshot of our work. We will be sending these bulletins on a regular basis and I welcome your feedback on the contents.

Each June organisations from across the UK join together for Carers Week to highlight the important work unpaid carers do everyday and the critical need for support carers need. Thank you to all who got involved.

Research conducted for Carers Week (7th-11th June) - ‘Breaks or Breakdown’ - found 72% of carers in Wales had not had any breaks since the start of the pandemic. The Welsh Government's announcement of an additional 3 million in funding for carers breaks was welcome however a concerted effort needs to be made to mainstream carer breaks funding moving forward and this money needs to applied to direct payments for carers so they can choose what breaks suit them.

I was delighted to have opportunities to speak to Welsh MPs and MSs during Carers Week and was encouraged by the number of politicians who publicly spoke out in support of carers during Carers Week. The awareness of the vital role carers play in our society is increasing and we will look to build cross-party support for carers rights.

Claire Morgan, Director

Our Policy Work

You can meet our policy team on July 6th from 2pm to discuss our work to find out more about our work. Sign up for this session here

Me Time

Is a listening service provided for 1-1 support from a volunteer. Click the link below for more information.

https://www.carersuk.org/wales/help-and-advice/me-time

Our Information and Advice work

  • Carers Wales has a vast range of information guides and factsheets for unpaid carers and we have recently created a new Wellbeing Hub with support about how to maintain emotional resilience and wellbeing while caring

  • We created a variety of blogs for Carers Week, including those written by unpaid carers. If you haven’t yet seen the blogs you can check them out at the Carers week page here

This month in I&A we will be beginning to update our Carers who are LGBTQ+ guide and also working on a video about managing the difficult emotion of guilt when caring. We’d love to hear your thoughts on these two topics – if you felt you could be a case study, or would like to discuss how guilt has affected you - please get in touch with Emily at Emily.Ellis@carerswales.org

Listening Support

  • Carers Wales launched our new bi-lingual Listening Support Service in May

  • The Listening Support Service offers a series of phone calls with someone who understands the ups and downs of caring and who can provide a listening ear.

  • The service was launched UK wide during Carers Week

  • We would like to encourage anyone in contact with carers to pass on this opportunity by passing on our details: https://www.carersuk.org/wales/help-and-advice/listening-support-service

Volunteering

  • There are a variety of ways to get involved in Carers Wales’ work, from volunteering your time on our campaigning work, to social media promotion, to becoming a workplace carers champion.

If you, or someone you know, would like to volunteer with us, email volunteer@carerswales.org

Online Support

Carers Wales run a variety of online support sessions for carers called MeTime, as well as our Wellbeing Days. The sessions are of different lengths and at different times. All the events are online so carers can access them in their own homes and all sessions are free to attend.

If you would like to attend MeTime or share with carers you are in contact with, you can at https://www.carersuk.org/wales/help-and-advice/me-time

Cath Haines
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