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Carers Week is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring and help people who don’t think of themselves as having caring responsibilities to identify as carers and access much-needed support.
The campaign is brought to life by thousands of individuals and organisations who come together to provide support for carers, run activities and highlight the vital role carers play in our communities.
This years theme is ‘Recognising and supporting carers in the community.’ #CarersWeek
What Action Mental Health are highlighting
Last year Action Mental Health launched a new service called the Mindful Carers Project. This project supports unpaid carers, young carers and carers of those with complex needs across NI through a range of programmes provided both face to face and online. (find out more here)
As part of the Mindful Carers Project, a Carers’ Advocacy Panel has been created to enable carers to highlight and campaign on issues related to carers’ mental health. With them we have created a number of resources below for Carers Week 2023.
Resources for Carers Week 2023
Self Compassion Guide for Carers
We are all unique, our caring roles are unique, and how we deal with difficulty will be unique too. This guide will provide some small, doable activities to help look after your wellbeing. They might not all be for everyone but the aim of it is to help you find what works for you and give you the ability to show yourself some kindness and compassion when it’s needed most.
Read and download here
Video Testimonies
We sat down with three Carers from our Carers Advocacy Panel who share some of their stories of how caring has impacted them and some things they do to help maintain good mental health.
Sarah’s Story
Deborah’s Story
Charlotte’s Story
A New Deal for unpaid carers in Northern Ireland
As part of the Coalition of Carers Organisations NI we are also highlighting the ‘A New Deal for unpaid carers in Northern Ireland‘ report.
The report was co-designed with over 240 unpaid carers in Northern Ireland and sets out the priority policy changes they want to see in the realms of health and social care, welfare, housing, employment and more.
You can read the report here