How Carers Trust is supporting unpaid carers during the pandemic
#LetstalkLoneliness. Even before Coronavirus, around seven million people across the UK were providing dedicated, unpaid care to a family member at home.
Even before Coronavirus, around seven million people across the UK were providing dedicated, unpaid care to a family member at home. Caring for a loved one with a long-term disability, illness, mental health problem or substance addiction can be really hard. Many carers provide well over 50 hours a week care, and it’s all unpaid. What’s more, it’s all done out of sight in the carer’s own home. It’s no wonder that many carers feel forgotten about and lonely, with little opportunity to get away from the home to relax and meet friends or wider family.
For many carers then, Coronavirus has made what was already a bad situation far, far worse. Their support is needed even more than before by those relying on them. And many key services have had to close down, meaning that many carers are on call round-the-clock.
The impact of coronavirus on already over-worked and exhausted carers has been immense. And many are now even more isolated and lonely than before.
So Carers Trust is thrilled to have received a grant of £500,000 from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Loneliness Fund (DCMS). The grant has enabled us to start a new programme – Connecting Communities, Connected Carers – that will provide much-needed support to those unpaid carers most at risk of loneliness because of the Coronavirus crisis.