Support for staff

The Carers' Network is a safe, confidential space for carers to:

• meet and connect with other members at online Café meetings
  
• discover what support is available at the university for carers. We hope the network will further influence the future support for carers' initiatives at the University
  
• share and discuss the challenges you face.

Whether you are caring for an adult or a child with additional needs, on a permanent or temporary basis, you're welcome to join the network and attend our café meetings. Our next session is tomorrow, Wednesday 19 November at 12pm, in-person in 3East 2.20 or on Teams.

And Thursday is Carers' Rights Day. The theme this year is "Know your rights, use your rights", encouraging all carers to get the support designed to reduce some of the pressures caring can bring, and feel empowered to use what they're entitled too.

The NHS recognises that it’s likely that every one of us will have caring responsibilities at some time in our lives with the challenges faced by carers taking many forms. Many carers juggle their caring responsibilities with work, study and other family commitments.

Our members have shared some of their experiences and challenges of being a carer, including:

"Being a carer comes in lots of different ways, that may not follow in the traditional model, especially when it becomes something that has been forced on you rather than an active choice. Being a carer can take over your entire life, and it can be really hard to leave it behind you at home in order not to affect my work. Being able to share these things openly with my team and that it will affect my work no matter how hard I try for it not to, and them understanding can be really helpful, especially as often caring commitments don't come with a deadline and seem never ending."

"Being a carer is complex and ever-changing. It’s a constant balancing act that shifts from one moment to the next, and it’s exhausting in ways that words can’t quite explain. It means being an advocate as well as managing all the practical, everyday responsibilities."

"Caring responsibilities are often misunderstood even by the people who are doing them. They start as something that you "just do" because someone close to you needs extra assistance. It's only as time wears on and those responsibilities start to increase slowly that you realise the impact on your day-to-day life. As is the case often with these things, there is also an expectation from both society and those needing care that this will come from those closest to them. Caring responsibilities can take many forms from supporting family members, a partner or friends with long term or terminal illnesses, disabilities both physical and mental, old age, addiction - or can be short term such as supporting someone after an accident. It can be very isolating being a carer. Self-care is normally a lesser priority as carers try and meet the needs of their loved ones, making those their priority and often not having time to process the emotional impact on themselves both in terms of providing support but also coming to terms with what is happening to their loved one that means they need this support.

"For me, "Know your rights, use your rights" means accessing help to navigate the often complex systems, understanding the order in which help must be obtained. It's not always clear what help is available, it's hard to access the help and it's a whole research project on top of providing physical and emotional support to loved ones whilst trying to stay afloat and manage your own life and whatever that is throwing at you.

"The benefits of the Carers' Network are that it's so nice to have a group of colleagues who understand your lived experience, to be able to talk freely and without judgment about the challenges you face and getting advice from people in the group who have been dealing with the same issues or understand the systems and are able to help you navigate them and find services that you didn't know exist... and also just to have a space where we can come, we can vent about the challenges and frustrations we face, share a tear when things get overwhelming and know that the group understands and fully empathises with the challenges you are facing, because they are facing similar challenges."

"I'd like colleagues to understand that on the days I'm not working, I do a full-time job, 12 hours a day, with no breaks. I come to work for a rest."

Support for students

If students are young adult carers (under the age of 25) - with either permanent or temporary caring responsibilities - we offer support with academic work, including time off from their studies to care for someone. Students can also get support from the Student Success team including applying for the Young Adult Carer's Bursary, and help with a Carer's Assessment from the local council.

You can also read more about young adult carers' experiences as Bath students.