Carers Week 2020 (2/3)
Abigail
Posts: 816 Part of The Mix Family
Continuing to
celebrate carers week, lets look at the next part of making carers visible.
Self-identifying as a carer is quite important, as to feel ready to open up to anyone about your hidden life, you have to believe that you are a carer in your own skin. No one can tell you how long this might take, but identifying yourself as a carer may help you in the long term for instance when you come to talk with health professionals such as GPs and doing some of the paperwork that you may get asked to do when your 18, such as a carers assessment. Identifying yourself as a carer might just come in the form of a small talk with yourself but for many people it comes from talking with others who we speak to and trust. Do not be afraid to ask for help when you need it.
As a community, carers will often feel like they want to hide and do not always want to say that they are a carer. A lot of carers centres across the UK have been using the carers ID cards scheme for carers to access, discounts within stores, make people aware that they are a carer, and to allow them a bit more priority when getting in stores during the pandemic.
If you would like further information about the carers ID card, speak with your local carers centre (18+). For those below 18 some young carers schemes do have it something similar but its subject to area specifics.
Some companies have schemes set up called The Carers Passport, no this is not a passport you travel with, this passport the company you work for understand that you are a carer and things might be a bit more difficult for you.
For further information about it check out more here (it will be hyperlinked https://www.carerpassport.uk/)
Have you received your carers card yet? What have you found to be the useful things with owning one? If you haven't thought about getting one, let us know what is stopping you? Together we could help you with sorting it out.
If you haven't seen the last thread in this series check it out here Keep an eye out for the last article in this series.
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