Carers Rights Day
This Carers Rights Day, we are pleased to have Laura Rutherford, award winning blogger at Brody, Me and GDD sharing her thoughts.
Did you know that today, the 23rd November 2023, is Carers Rights Day?
This Carers Rights Day I want to make you aware that not just today, but every day, we need to be raising awareness of the rights and challenges faced by unpaid carers in the UK. Believe me, I know – the struggle is real.
My son Brody is 11-years-old and I am not just his parent, but his carer (a parent carer if you will).
Being Brody’s parent is amazing. He is a beautiful, happy boy who loves life, blowing raspberries and keeping me on my toes.
Being Brody’s carer has its challenges.
It’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and it’s physically and mentally exhausting. It’s washing, dressing and feeding. It’s taking care of personal care needs. It’s remembering medications. It’s looking after a vulnerable boy with no danger awareness. It’s worrying about what the future holds. My role as a carer is to keep my son safe – keep my son alive - and its constant because he is unable to look after himself.
But would you believe that this isn’t even the difficult part?
What’s difficult is that unpaid carers are often unseen.
What’s difficult is the lack of funding and respite throughout the UK.
What’s difficult is that the care system is failing unpaid carers and the people that we care for.
What’s difficult is that social care and mental health services have high workloads, staff under pressure and never-ending waiting lists and times.
What’s difficult is the constant, uphill battles we face with ‘the system’ - fighting for services and sometimes even the very basic of human rights.
It’s hard as a parent carer to not feel like this day is a tick box exercise created to make us feel heard and seen for 24 hours and then swept back under the rug the next day.
Reader – I beg you not to do this.
Like me, please see every unpaid carer. The ones who silently fight and the ones who shout from the rooftops. See the ones who have no fight left. Because it is not easy. We should applaud every single one for their strength, fuelled by love and the sheer grit to not give up. To keep going.
And to the venues and businesses sharing the hashtag today – see us, let us tell our stories and share our voices, not just today, but every day.
