For many unpaid carers the health of our loved ones often comes before our own and we all too often put our own health concerns on the back burner because there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to tend to our own needs. For some that can even mean delaying minor surgery as they don’t want to be put out of action for a period of time while they recover. Common complaints amongst carers include things like back and joint pain, fatigue, worry induced insomnia and high levels of stress on an almost daily basis.

The covid pandemic has also introduced new health concerns for many, especially those who are shielding a loved one or even shielding themselves. The worry of what happens if I become to unwell to carry out my caring role and who will care for my loved ones is very real amongst unpaid carers. Why the worry you ask? A social care system that is in crisis, services that were stopped at the start of the pandemic and have yet to be restarted and the long term lack of support all mean there’s no back up plan if we ourselves become too unwell to care. Another worry for unpaid carers is catching covid and then passing it on to our vulnerable loved ones who may well end up seriously ill or worse with it.

As we see case numbers rising and the start of a new wave we face the choice of either isolating again or taking our chances and hoping we can avoid becoming infected with the virus. For some of us the choice has been to once again isolate ourselves as the chances are now just too great as our governments have all decided we need to try and live with covid and have removed all the protections we once had.

We’re constantly told that the vaccines are our best hope and also that there’s widespread access available to anti-virals. Lets’ take a look at those two statements shall we. Vaccines – Unpaid carers and many of our loved ones were not eligible for the Spring booster and as of yet unpaid carers will not be eligible for a booster in the autumn either. Anti-virals – We hear all the time about widespread access to anti-viral treatments, but once again this is a falsehood as in real terms access to these treatments is extremely limited and for many unpaid carers and their loved ones there simply is no access to such treatments.

Despite raising our concerns about the issues raised above with our respective governments nothing is being done by the UK or devolved governments to help ease those concerns and many feel we’ve just been abandoned and left to get on with it.