Recommendation: Emily Kenway's 'Who Cares: The hidden crisis of caregiving and how we solve it'
One of my Top Ten Annual Re-Reads.
Hello, Dear Reader! Welcome to our new Carer Mentor community members!
I’m Victoria. You can read why I’m publishing Carer Mentor here: Who Started Carer Mentor and Why?
This article was published on 27 April 2024. These are some of the reasons why I elevated this book to my Top Ten Annual ReRead List:
For the very first time, one book has managed to neatly articulate and expose the realities of being a carer.
It is truly disturbing to read all these truths about what I have been through and what I continue to experience, fully stacked, compounding, and resonating so loudly. A thorough evidence-based approach to kin-caring. Thank you
!I read this book in July 2023. It was a compelling page-turner for me because it forensically referenced and laid bare the reasons behind the state of caring today.
Plus, I wanted to discover potential solutions that could enable us to be seen, valued, and embraced, not marginalised in society.
I encourage you to read it for yourself, whether you’re a Carer or not. A key read for me was ‘Chapter 4 On Family: Wise Women and the Practice of Kinning.’
Each truth is treated with care in terms of explaining the situation and extended beyond her journey of caring for her mother (who was suffering from cancer & receiving treatment).
Statements encompass more than one country, more than one opinion, and many meaningful references. She presents each point logically, substantiated by evidence and historical facts.
The narrative's eloquence guides our education and highlights how people's views differ and why each carer’s experience is unique. It offers irrefutable, heart-sinking, corroborating insights.
As a Carer, will you feel vindicated or frustrated at the compounding stack of injustices?
Like Emily Kenway’s book, I hope this website can comfort Caregivers and offer community and resonance.
For those who are not yet caregivers, the resources and experiences shared can provide a window into the struggles and challenges of caregivers. These may help you prepare for what could lie ahead.
This book gave me the premise for what I’m doing with this website. Until I read it, I had numerous maddening reasons for things being the way they are. I couldn’t get my arms around it all, research it or lay it out to logically see the interwoven picture.
Emily Kenway’s forensic research exposes irrefutable evidence and reveals the historical stepping stones so everyone can walk the whys and hows of how we got here.
While I hope that governments and policymakers invest in short-term, fast actions to achieve meaningful, long-term social change, I have greater faith in how one or two people can help and support each other. We can build relationships and a sense of community locally. Intergenerational friendships and neighbourly support, checking on each other, getting shopping, picking up prescriptions…this is how we can act locally to build community.
Here are 3 video/audio interviews Emily did around the time of the book launch in April 2023:
The Fearless Caregiver April 30 2023
Carers UK June 2023. July 14 2023 (Where I was first introduced to her work)
The hidden crisis of caregiving and how we solve it | Emily Kenway | Humanists UK Convention 2023
In conversation with Head of Humanist Care Clare Elcombe Webber, writer and activist Emily Kenway uses in-depth research and the stories of real carers to explore what care is like today, and outline a vision for a better way forward. In this session she draws from her book 'Who cares: the hidden crisis in caregiving, and how we solve it' – recently selected as a finalist for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing
Per the Amazon review on the UK website:
A ground-breaking book lifting the lid on the hidden side of the 'care crisis' - helping us reimagine our world to put caregiving at its heart
Deftly blending memoir with forensic research and the voices of caregivers from as far afield as Norway, Nepal and Nebraska, Who Cares is an essential read for anyone who has ever cared for, or will receive care from, another person - which is to say, for everyone.
Have you read the book? What was your most thought-provoking takeaway?
I hope this inspires you to read this book or one of the books from my Annual Top Ten list!
Please press your heart ‘❤️’ to like this and guide others here.
Warm wishes to you and your loved ones.