Care Alliance uses cookies to give you the best experience on our websites. By using this site you agree to our use of cookies as described in this Privacy Policy. Click here to remove this message.

Care Alliance

Care Alliance Homepage

'Guiding support for family carers'

Learning for Caregivers

Care Alliance Ireland were proud to act as partners in 2019-2020 on a Erasmus+ funded project focused on exchanging the experiences and good practices to support family carers. To find out more about this project, you can visit the Learning for Caregivers website.

One of the outputs is a good practices guide that details over 20 established and emerging actions and interventions across Europe that seek to inspire others to better support family carers.

 

Working with partners from Greece, Belgium, France, the "Learning for Caregivers in Europe (Learn4Carers)" project had the following objectives: 

  1. Exchange experiences and good practices to support family carers
  2. Strengthening mutual learning among organisations in relation to support services for family carers
  3. Informing professionals providing support services to family carers
  4. Raise awareness of the challenges faced by family carers across the European Union
  5. Developing proposals at both local and European level to support family carers

Who are family carers? 

Family carers can be defined as persons who provide unpaid care to someone with a chronic illness, disability or other long-lasting health or carer need. According to research, upwards of 80% of all care in Europe is provided by family carers, with women approximately accounting for two-thirds of all care mainly as daughters (in law) and wives/partners. 

In Ireland, there is approximately 499,000 family carers, or 13% of the population, who provide care for a family member or friend.

Family carers carry out important care work, which can bring personal satisfaction for many, but family carers also face several challenges. 

Activities of the project:

  1. Transnational meetings in Athens, Dublin, Brussels (virtual) and Paris (virtual)
  2. Focus groups with family carers, professionals and policymakers
  3. Discussing, collating and recording the needs of family carers and good practices to support them
  4. Webinars and teleconference meetings
  5. Awareness activities in partner countries
  6. Project website with informative material, updated regularly 
  7. Social media communications detailing the project as it progresses