Peter Murray and Shamin Akhtar ask us all to celebrate the dedication of East Lothian's unpaid carers during Carers Week 2021
Peter Murray (East Lothian Integration Joint Board Chair) and Councillor Shamin Akhtar (IJB Vice-Chair) are asking us all to remember the amazing job that unpaid carers in East Lothian do, day-in, day-out, every day of the year. They ask you to join them in recognizing and celebrating East Lothian carers’ huge contribution during this week’s Carers Week 2021.
Councillor Shamin Akhtar said:
‘There are roughly 759,000 carers in Scotland and around 15,000 carers here in East Lothian. Carers can be any age from really young children to much older people. Carers care for parents, partners, brothers and sisters, children, other family members and friends.
‘The people they care for have a range of needs and can be any age. They may have long-term or short-term health conditions, physical or learning disabilities, mental health or substance misuse problems.
‘Carers provide all sorts of care, including physical, personal and emotional support. Some carers do this regularly and some do it all the time.
‘The contribution they make is invaluable.’
Peter Murray added:
‘Caring can have a huge impact on carers’ health, wellbeing and life chances and the East Lothian Integration Joint Board is committed to tackling this through implementing the East Lothian Carers’ Strategy.
‘Recently we have seen significant success in working with East Lothian Council on achieving a Carer Positive award, as part of the roll-out of the Carers Strategy Implementation Plan. This puts them on a par with NHS Lothian, Edinburgh Council and around 200 other organisations in Scotland.
‘It’s something that I would encourage businesses across East Lothian to think about as a positive move to offering meaningful support to unpaid carers in the workplace.’
East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership has been working with Carers of East Lothian and East Lothian Young Carers on a programme of events, culminating in the Carers Big Day Out at Foxlake, generously supported by Foxlake and The Café at Foxlake. More information about events is available at https://fb.watch/5-6Vlz1hSU/