A VIEW FROM OUR CEO
Every Thursday night, you’ll find me on my doorstep, loudly and enthusiastically clapping for our carers.
Naturally, I’m applauding the incredible frontline medical and care staff who are helping us through this fight against coronavirus.
But just as importantly, I’m cheering (and drumming a random saucepan) for those wonderful parents, partners, wives, husbands, children, grandparents and devoted friends, who are behind the doors of Suffolk homes and have an invisible badge of being an ‘informal carer’.
A statistic which always startles those I tell, is that the informal carer population of the UK actually saves the economy some £132 billion per year (just over £19,000 per carer).
And at times as serious and exceptional as this, we certainly see the power of that crucial contribution.
Since the pandemic first struck our shores, it’s these carers who have continued to perform their big-hearted role, in more challenging circumstances, and with less support to ease their load.
Imagine the wife who has cared for her husband since his dementia diagnosis 12 years ago. She’s done so without question or complaint – but with the occasional respite of a visit from her grandchildren, or a neighbour taking over just long enough that she can visit a shop or get a haircut.
In our era of lockdown, it’s exactly this sort of scenario which has been dramatically and uncomfortably changed.
Our carers – all 80,000 plus of them across Suffolk – are truly a spectacular and often unforgotten army of kindness. But even more so now.
They’re doing more with less, feeling more isolated, and living in their own degree of fear and uncertainty as we all worry about this deadly virus.
My staff and I are hearing daily about carers whose family members have become infected, or worse, lost their life. We hear about the struggles to get shopping slots, about efforts to get medications, and about their search for other resources or friendships which might just ease this challenging period.
Caring is a difficult job at the best of times, and now in the worst.
I want to sound a direct note of applause and congratulations to every one who is managing their role and doing so with little day to day praise or appreciation.
You are true heroes inside the homes in which you carry out your kind acts with such grace.
Thank you. We are proud of you, and pleased to be here for you.
Kirsten
