Giving Portsmouth’s Unpaid Carers a Voice
Many people across Portsmouth became unpaid carers overnight when lockdown was imposed, increasing their responsibilities to look after older, disabled or seriously ill loved ones and relatives instantly.
With day care centres and respite closed down, it left carers in a particularly challenging position. Healthwatch Portsmouth is today launching its What Matters Most to Unpaid Carers campaign to give unpaid carers a voice.
We want to hear what caring during the pandemic has been like and how things need to change going forward, particularly with the virus still in circulation.
Siobhain McCurrach, Head of Healthwatch Portsmouth, said: “We undertook a general Covid-19 survey back in July, to ask people how they found accessing health and care services during the pandemic. At that time, carers told us they felt “left to get on with things”, so we want to find out more about the problems and what can be done to support carers moving forward.”
“The hardest thing for me has been trying to look after a 94-year-old with dementia. We have just been left to get on with it.”
This was just one of the responses which we received from carers to our general survey, which raised alarm bells so now we want to hear from carers across the county and have launched a county-wide survey to hear their views.
There are a number of ways people can share their views with us:
Complete the survey online:
Call us: 023 9354 1510
Email us: info@healthwatchportsmouth.co.uk