It’s National Carers Week, focusing on the diversity of primary carers and their caring roles.
Anyone at any time may become an unpaid carer. Their outstanding commitment, made more challenging by Covid, deserves to be acknowledged and celebrated.
With no formal training, the more than 2.7 million carers in Australia give 36 million hours of care and support every week for family or friends living with disability or illness, or who are frail or aged. This saves the public purse at least $1.1 billion per week.
These unsung heroes wash bodies, laundry, and dishes; keep appointments, records, and tempers; give medication, time, and hugs; fill forms, fridges, and silences; and deal with doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, My Aged Care, Centrelink, and a lack of sleep. Amidst all this they need support to have a life of their own. Take the time to acknowledge carers for their selflessness – not just this week.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
