Caring in North Tyneside in 2022
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Healthwatch North Tyneside and North Tyneside Carers’ Centre undertook a survey of carers on behalf of North Tyneside’s Carers Partnership Board between 12 December 2022 and 8 February 2023. They received 681 responses from residents who are unpaid carers, three times as many than Heathwatch’s previous survey during the pandemic in 2021.
The Carers Partnership Board had assumed that the Covid pandemic had a significant impact on the responses people gave in 2021. Healthwatch expected that, as lockdowns eased, responses and experiences would improve, but haven’t seen the predicted improvement in the 2022 data. Across almost all of the themes Healthwatch asked about, the responses are similar or worse the pandemic survey.
Carers often struggle to cope. The data for 2022 is very similar to that in the2021 pandemic survey. Isolation continues to be a major issue for carers with 41% of respondents saying they felt more isolated than the previous year (which was during the pandemic) with 46% responding ‘just the same’.
Carers are providing more care than before. This appears to be because the needs of the people they care for are increasing, resulting in needing more support from their carers. This is exacerbated by delays in NHS treatment and challenges in organising care packages, which result in greater pressure on carers.
Cost of living challenges are a massive issue within the feedback – heating, transport, special diets etc.
People felt that their emotional, financial and physical welling is significantly worse in the last 12 months. Only ‘social wellbeing’ appears to have improved in comparison to responses to the same question in the pandemic survey.
Most people say support from services has improved in comparison to the pandemic survey. There are some really good examples of professionals working hard to provide support in very difficult situations.
Carers often do not feel valued for the vital role that they play.
Carers described the key challenges as:
- Knowing where to get help when they need it.
- Getting timely support.
- The impact of their caring role on their own wellbeing.
- Joined up care and support for themselves as carers and the person they care for.
This time Healthwatch added more questions about work and there is a real mix of responses highlighting positive support from employers to people feeling forced to leave work.
Carers have fed back that they feel there is not enough support for carers available in the borough.
The report contains ten recommendations about access to information, access to support, improving access to services and ensuring carers don’t feel left out.