Revealed: the hidden lives of the UK’s 6.5 million carers
This article is really interesting. There is far too little research on the impacts of rurality on the life of carers, where isolation, higher living costs and longer distances to medical care must all exacerbate the sort of issues profiled here. The a article tells us:
The Harts are among the 6.5 million full-time carers in Britain who are featured in a photography exhibition next week in the members lobby at the Scottish parliament.
The photos are taken by the renowned documentary photographer Chris Steele-Perkins, who has spent a large part of his career photographing people who are in, or are providing, care.
“Caring is an activity that usually goes on behind lace curtains and a front of stoicism,” he says. “I was conscious that caring situations are very rarely depicted. I had seen photographs of people smiling gamely for the camera, but few that considered the relationships involved.
“I want to document these issues because they are fundamentals of the kind of society we live in,” he adds
Three in five of us will become carers at some point in our lives
The exhibition, This is Caring, is commissioned by Carers UK to celebrate 50 years of the charity.
It calculates that by 2037, there will be a 40% rise in full-time carers to 9 million, mainly because people are living longer. As a result, three in five of us, the charity suggests, will become carers at some point in our lives.
“We are at a tipping point,” says Heléna Herklots, chief executive of Carers UK. “We will soon see the number of people needing care outstrip the number of family members able to provide it.”