Carers Wales E-Bulletin
Welcome to the first Carers Wales e-bulletin of the new year.
We go into 2022 with optimism for a year less dominated by COVID but with significant concern around the pressures facing the NHS and social care. The capacity issues that both workforces are experiencing has a direct and deep impact on unpaid carers across our nation who, ultimately, are the ones delivering much of the additional care required. We will be stepping up our campaigns to have unpaid carers recognised as the third pillar of care but to also see improved financial commitment to support them.
This has already begun as part of our Carer Aware project alongside Carers Trust Wales. We are running co-produced training sessions for social workers throughout 2022 to improve recognition, respect and understanding about what types of support to put in place. We will also be releasing a five-year retrospective on our Track The Act research looking at how the carers elements of the Social Services and Wellbeing Act have been implemented.
We are pleased to be running our Annual Summit for unpaid carers across the week of the 7 February. This year, we will be holding focused discussions on a variety of topics throughout the week to capture carers views, feedback and suggested ways forward for a final plenary and expert panel session on the Friday. A report and film will be published with collated feedback.
I would also like to highlight on our ongoing work with MS Society Cymru where we are running Me Time wellbeing support sessions for the families of people with MS.
As ever, please share this bulletin with those who would be interested in our work.
Policy/Polisi
On 16 December we launched our State of Caring Wales Briefing, setting out the results of our largest ever survey of unpaid carers in Wales and shining a light on their experiences in 2021. We found that carers in Wales were spending over £1,300 on average of their own money on caring, that 71% of carers said their mental health had worsened over the past two years and that there remains widespread disruption to carers services despite Wales not having been in lockdown since Spring 2021. Our full report, and recommendations to the Welsh Government, Local Authorities and Health Boards can be found here.
ITV Cymru evening news reported on our State of Caring Wales results, interviewing an unpaid carer in Swansea who looks after both of their parents, while also speaking to our Policy Officer Jake. You can read and watch their report here.
We responded to the Senedd Health and Social Care committee’s recent consultation on hospital discharge, and used an online survey of carers to ensure their experiences shaped our response.
On Carers Rights Day at the end of November, we asked Members of the Senedd to pledge that they and their staff would attend Carer Awareness training so they could better support carer constituents. We are booking in sessions with the MSs who took the pledge and will be delivering them in the coming months.
Information and advice/Gwybodaeth a chyngor
We now have new videos to accompany the easy-read guide to Carers Assessments that were launched last year. These videos are available bilingually, and are BSL signed, as well as having subtitles and voiceover to make them as accessible as possible. Access the videos.
We are also hard at work completing more videos for 2022 – and would like to say a huge thank you to all the carers who have contributed with ideas, feedback and advice. Coming up we have two animations, including a very special animation featuring carers’ voices. We also have two wellbeing videos nearing completion.
We would love to hear your thoughts on existing video resources and ideas for information & advice resources. Is there a topic we don’t cover that you would like to see? Get in touch with Emily at emily.ellis@carerswales.org
Listening Support Service/Gwasanaeth Cymorth Gwrando
The Listening Support Service continues to be well-received by carers and make a difference for those who are struggling with the ups and down of caring.
Here is some of our recent feedback:
“You’ve got a lovely calming voice, and it does make people feel safe. I feel safe when I talk to you. My best friend called around yesterday, and she’s my confidante, but I don’t tell her these things because she worries about me.”
“My husband knows you ring, and I never tell him what we talk about, but he says he can tell it’s helping because there’s something different about me.”
“You leave me with that feeling of (big sigh of relief), and that I can keep going.”
We are looking to grow our team of volunteers and increase the number of carers that we can support. If you are a good listener, empathic, have great IT skills, and can provide confidential, impartial support, we would love to hear from you. For more information, or to apply, please email listeningsupport@carerswales.org
Online support/Cymorth Ar-lein
Over the festive period, Carers Wales held five online MeTime sessions, with over 50 attendees. Check out what we have coming up in 2022.
If anyone would like to give a talk or demonstration at any of our future online sessions or if you have anything that you would like seen covered, please do get in touch volunteer@carerswales.org
Volunteering/Gwirfoddoli
We’re recruiting a new Volunteer and Carer Support Officer. This new role will be responsible for providing appealing and fulfilling experiences for Carers Wales volunteers and for carers who join our online support sessions. Leading on all aspects of volunteer promotion, recruitment, induction, communications and evaluation, it will ensure that volunteers’ experiences are richly rewarding. It will also coordinate and deliver our established and popular programme of online support sessions for carers.
Carers Wales, Unit 5, Ynys Bridge Court, Cardiff, CF15 9SS
| T 029 2081 1370 | E info@carerswales.org