Social Care Minister Helen Whately MP met charity leaders at the Department for Health and Social Care in Westminster yesterday (1st May) to discuss their plans for Carers Week and the development of a National Carers Strategy. This year, the focus of the awareness week will be on ‘Putting Carers on the Map’.
It will be the first time the ME Association has taken part in a week which frequently commands acres of press and broadcast coverage. It will take place from 10th to 16th June. We were represented by Tony Britton, our senior fundraising consultant.
Pictured, from the left, are: Ariam Enraght-Moony, chief people officer with TSB Bank which operates world-leading carers’ retention policies; Oxfam GB domestic policy lead Silvia Galandini; a colleague of Ariam’s, who told us how she managed to maintain her caring responsibilities while continuing to work for the bank; The Minister for Social Care, Helen Whately MP; Carers UK chief executive Helen Walker (who chaired the meeting), the MEA's Tony Britton; Rethink Mental Illness chief executive Mark Winstanley, Motor Neurone Disease Association external affairs director Chris James, Carers Trust chief executive Kirsty McHugh and Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK.
During Carers Week, the ME Association will be concentrating on how caring has affected 1) your own health, 2) your finances, and 3) your employment.
- Please let us have your story.
- You can write on any of these topics, or all of them.
- Please let us have photographs to illustrate what you're writing about.
- If at all possible, keep stories to 500 words.
- If your story is selected to feature for a Carers Week publication, we'll ask permission before we go ahead.
Email us at feedback@meassociation.org.uk. We'd like your name, your age, information about the person you care for, and your own story.
Thank you.