Family Carers Ireland call for nominations across Mayo for 10th Carers of the Year Awards
New Awards for Young Carers Announced
Family Carers Ireland, representing Ireland’s 200,000 family carers, launched its 10th Carers of the Year Awards 2016 on May 26th to celebrate the enormous contribution and loving care provided by family carers and young carers (under 18).
Family Carers Ireland are urging people across Mayo to nominate their chosen carer and recognise their work providing essential care in the home to loved ones. Those wishing to do so can go online and fill in a simple nomination form from Family Carers Ireland.
To mark the 10th anniversary, four young carers will be chosen regionally as Ireland’s Young Carers of the Year 2016. Formerly only one young carer was presented nationally.
Ireland’s young carers are a steadily growing group. Latest research finds that 11.4 per cent of 10,368 children aged 10 – 17 surveyed identified themselves as family carers*. This is similar to the UK experience. While a significant number of these young carers are siblings of a brother or sister with a disability who are helping out their parents, there are also young carers out there who are providing inappropriate levels of care during their young years. While our awards recognise the first group we are very conscious of the latter and we continue to highlight this issue with the appropriate health and social care providers to ensure that these young carers and their families are identified and properly supported.
With awareness of young family carers increasing, the awards saw a 400 per cent increase in the number of nominations for young carers last year.
“Launching our tenth Carers of the Year Awards is a very special milestone. Family carers provide high levels of care in the home to their loved ones, including older people, those terminally ill and with disabilities. This care is provided with love and we want to celebrate family carers and young carers across Ireland with these awards” said Catherine Cox, Family Carers Ireland.
“So many people give their time and often sacrifice many aspects of their lives to provide care to loved ones, often over many years. We are calling on the public to nominate these dedicated carers for the Carers of the Year Awards.”
Broadcasters and patrons of Family Carers Ireland, Mary Kennedy and Marty Whelan officially launched The Carers of the Year Awards at an event held in the Westin Hotel, Dublin, sponsored by Tunstall Emergency Response.
Nomination forms are available from Family Carers Ireland Resource Centres nationwide or call the Freephone Careline on 1800 24 07 24. Nominations can also be made online at www.familycarers.ie. Closing date for entries is Friday, September 16th and the tenth Carers of the Year Awards will be presented in Dublin in November.
Family Carers Ireland is the newly merged organisation of The Carers Association with Caring for Carers launched in January.
