practical living
Helping carers to care for themselves
New program links carers to
resources and support.
Paul Lindsay interviewed by Megan Tran
A
new initiative has been launched
to connect Australia’s largest
unpaid workforce with resources,
especially in rural and regional areas.
Embracing Carers, released during
National Carers Week, is a global
movement to recognise the role of carers
worldwide, and to provide resources to
help identify those in Australia who may
not realise they are fulfilling that role.
A staggering 2.7 million Australians
provide $60 billion of ‘free’ labour every
year, which equates to more than $1 billion
per week.
“Research shows that nearly 80 per cent
of carers do not self-identify as a carer
and may not be aware of the emotional,
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financial and practical support and services
available to them,” says Paul Lindsay,
director of market access and government
affairs at Merck Biopharma.
He adds that the idea presented itself
a year ago, when the company became
conscious about the role and support of
carers, and the fact that some carers didn’t
understand they were defined as carers,
or know what resources were available
to them.
The company contacted various
organisations around the world and
decided to shine the spotlight on carers,
and it subsequently launched the
Embracing Carers program, he says.
The program aims to garner attention
and support for carers to make their
lives easier.
Lindsay says the definition of a carer,
as identified by the Australian Bureau of
Statistics, is anyone who is a friend or
family of someone who has a chronic
illness or mental condition and delivers
unpaid care.
And with caring often seen as a labour of
love, it blurs the barriers.
“Research shows carers don’t always
look after themselves. They often feel
guilty if they do their own thing and
consequently can suffer depression or
comorbidities,” he says.
Aged Care Insite spoke with Lindsay to
shed more light on these issues.
ACI: Where did the idea to create the
Embracing Carers program come from?
PL: The idea came from Merck about
a year ago. Merck is a supplier of a
number of medicines to patients around
the world, and we’re very conscious
in our discussions with healthcare
professionals around the role and the
support that patients have with carers in
their daily lives.
We realised that carers do a lot of
work but don’t really understand whether
they are a carer or what resources are
available to them.
So we started thinking that our role
is more than just providing medicines;
it’s about the wellbeing of these
patients, which involves of course their
support groups.
So we got in touch with a number of
leading care organisations around the
world, and Carers Australia is one of them.
We got them together and they agreed
that this was an important initiative to put
a spotlight on the role that carers provide
to patients. And, as a consequence, we
launched Embracing Carers.
The idea of the program is to bring to
the attention of carers what information