Spotlight: The Caregivers
We are more than the care we give. Turning the light onto the people providing the care.
Dear Readers, Thank you for being here and using some of your precious time to read Carer Mentor. Our Carer Mentor community keeps growing!
I’m Victoria. You can read why I’m publishing Carer Mentor here: Who Started Carer Mentor and Why?
One aim of the Carer Mentor Mission is to dispel the myth that caregivers1 are superhuman heroes here to do a job. In the UK, we are called ‘unpaid carers’, which differentiates us from ‘professional carers’ who are part of the UK economy. Yet, WE are the glue and the backbone enabling care in the absence of available care resources (at the end of 2024, social care reform has been postponed to 2025 by the UK government). We interface with people and systems that only see us as conduits, tools, translators, buffers, or administrators.
We have needs and wants. We assert ourselves to advocate for our loved ones and go the extra mile to ensure our rights and safety are considered. We eventually learn to survive and then try to navigate our way to thrive in our new norm of caregiving. Or worse, some people sleepwalk into caregiving after a crisis and become ground down by cyclical burnout.
For once, I’d like us to put the Spotlight firmly on the caregiver—the person, the human. We are more than our acts of giving care. We have talents, passions, interests and gifts beyond those of caregiving.
Just so you know, Carer Mentor is currently on Substack, a platform that started with its readership in the USA. Although approximately 60% of our community is based in the US, we are a global community. Every country has a different healthcare system, social care system/services, and its own pros and cons.
I urge us to be open, supportive and caring AND be mindful that access/availability to care support and services and our financial circumstances are different for each of us. Thank you!
March 5 Spotlight Article
Caregiver's Spotlight: Jeanette Yates. 'Jeanette is a writer, public speaker, and caregiver coach for women.' In this second Caregiver Spotlight, Jeanette introduces herself, and I highlight her YouTube interview with Micheal Pope.
October 18 Spotlight Article
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Footnotes
The most recent Census 2021 puts the estimated number of unpaid carers at 5 million in England and Wales. This, together with ONS Census data for Scotland and Northern Ireland, suggests that the number of unpaid carers across the UK is 5.7 million.
This means that around 9% of people are providing unpaid care. However, Carers UK research in 2022 estimates the number of unpaid carers could be as high as 10.6 million (Carers UK, Carers Week 2022 research report).
4.7% of the population in England and Wales are providing 20 hours or more of care a week.
Over the period 2010-2020, every year, 4.3 million people became unpaid carers – 12,000 people a day (Petrillo and Bennett, 2022).
59% of unpaid carers are women (Census 2021). Women are more likely to become carers and to provide more hours of unpaid care than men. More women than men provide high intensity care at ages when they would expect to be in paid work (Petrillo and Bennett, 2022)
One in seven people in the workplace in the UK are juggling work and care (Carers UK, Juggling Work and Care, 2019).
Between 2010-2020, people aged 46-65 were the largest age group to become unpaid carers. 41% of people who became unpaid carers were in this age group (Petrillo and Bennett, 2022).
