In the run up to this year’s Carers Week a partnership of eight charities, including Carers UK, set out to explore the impact of caring on carers’ health and well-being.

The report ‘In Sickness and in Health’ showed that a shocking 83% of carers have seen a negative impact on their physical health, 87% reported caring taking a toll on their mental health, and over a third had suffered a physical injury as a result of caring.

When asked what was to blame for this poor health, 64% of carers identified a lack of practical support as a major factor.

With these findings, Carers UK and the other Carers Week partners have called on the Government to take urgent action to improve the financial and practical support carers receive, with these recommendations:

1)      Sustainable funding of social care

2)      Ongoing support and breaks from caring

3)      Support from GPs

In addition, Carers UK have been working with Bupa and carers to create this website. Carewell’s aim is to provide a practical resource to support you as you care, focussing on four areas of wellbeing - diet, sleep, exercise and stress. We are aiming to provide tools, information, support and expert advice that take into account your caring responsibilities - It’s all very well being told to join a gym and only buy organic veg, but how feasible is that on Carers Allowance or when you get no time to yourself?

Carewell is still in its first stages, so there’s a lot more to come – from recipes to case studies to more practical tools like our Adviceboard. But we’re also keen to hear what you want; is there a particular issue you need advice on, or a tool you think could be useful in helping you stay healthy? Let us know and we’ll try and factor it into to future content. We have experts on hand, from GPs to pharmacists to carers, so if you can make use of them, then do.