Carers Week

This year Carers Week takes place from the 5th - 11th of June. The theme is 'Recognising and supporting carers in the community.'

Carers Week is an annual campaign run in partnership with key carers charities to raise awareness of and highlight the challenges unpaid carers face. It also aims to recognise the often-hidden contribution they make to society.

Many people still don't think of themselves as carers. As a result, they don't identify as having caring responsibilities and seek out or access much-needed support to help them in their caring role.

The focus for 2023 is on 'recognising and supporting carers in the community', which is at the very core of what we do at Carers Count.

For Carers Week this year, we will be out and about across Kirklees, supporting carers in our community. We are kicking things off with a special Carers Week information drop-in event at Empire House in Dewsbury, alongside a host of groups, sessions and lunch and learn events which are taking place throughout the week.

Please take a look at our Carers Week events calendar below to see what we have planned:

These organisations have joined together to make Carers Week happen in 2023

'Recognising and supporting carers in the community'

Have you got your carers lanyard yet?

Launched in partnership with Healthwatch Kirklees last year, our lanyard and cards for unpaid carers are well-recognised across all health and care settings throughout Kirklees.

In the short clip below, you can hear carer's feedback on their positive experiences with the cards and lanyards. We know that they help to make carers easier to identify and enable staff to proactively offer them support and signpost them to information, where required. If you know of any carers who could benefit from this, please spread the word.

During Carers Week we will also be handing out free 'Message in a Bottle' samples.

You can pick up your message in a bottle from us at the office at Brian Jackson House or when we are out and about at groups and events.

Lions Clubs Message in a Bottle

Lions Clubs Message in a Bottle is a simple but effective way for people to keep their basic personal and medical details where they can be found in an emergency on a standard form and in a common location – the fridge.

Message in a Bottle (known within Lions as MIAB) helps emergency services personnel to save valuable time in identifying an individual very quickly and knowing if they have any allergies or take special medication.

Paramedics, police, firefighters and social services support this Lions life-saving initiative and know to look in the fridge when they see the Message in a Bottle sticker, supplied. The initiative provides peace of mind that prompt and appropriate medical assistance can be provided, and next of kin/emergency contacts can be notified.