Who Cares?: What do people with caring responsibilities really think about latest twists and turns in coronavirus crisis?

So, we’ve made it to January and as always, I urge you not to make New Year resolutions until March. For those who have joined me in January in previous years, this will be a familiar refrain, but indulge me for the sake of new arrivals while I explain.

I don’t believe the cold, grey weeks of January with the limited hours of daylight put us in the right frame of mind to make sustainable changes to our lives. Whether for physical or mental health improvement, it will be much easier to make those changes stick when the bulbs start to flower on the road verges and there is a lot more daylight.

I still do my morning walk every day, well except if there is ice on the paths as I am a wee fearty when I can’t be sure of not turning into Bambi as I cross the street. I can heartily recommend it as being out in the open air when there’s not much traffic and with the friendly dog-walkers to pass the time of day with is a great way to start off whether home working or housework awaits my return.

"I don’t believe the cold, grey weeks of January with the limited hours of daylight put us in the right frame of mind to make sustainable changes to our lives."

But if you are looking to start an exercise programme, healthier eating habits or any other sincere wish for improvement, start slowly in January and don’t add the pressure of a big resolution to the process. Build in the chance of success by not setting severe targets of distance, speed or weight loss, but maybe by hoping to achieve a calmer more positive outlook or just a bit of a space for yourself before you start dealing with the demands others place on you in a normal day; working or caring for a loved one which is a real job of work in itself.

I think those of us who do have caring responsibilities are going to face a worrying few months with the seeming determination of our leaders to throw open the doors to Covid in all its variants. I am finding myself going ‘Eh?’ more often than ever when I hear folk say that the numbers infected are falling and so it is going to be fine, and we have to ‘learn to live with Covid’.

Are the numbers of infections really going down? Or could there be a connection to the abolition of the need to take a PCR test if you have a positive result on a lateral flow test?

If there is no requirement for a PCR, and nobody is checking whether people using LFT’s register the result, then is it really a surprise that the infection stats are dropping like a stone?

Yet the NHS still report pressures near to maximum and people are still dying in significant numbers.

What’s important here? Really protecting the most vulnerable in society or arranging things so that it appears that we are out of the woods? This tension is what is keeping folk shielding and living very small lives. Who is really suffering for political gains?

So as always, be kind to yourself and don’t accept more pressure than you are comfortable with – whether it is other people or yourself doing the pushing.

Karen is Mum to an autistic teenager and campaigns for the rights of unpaid carers to be supported in their caring role and involved in the decisions that affect their lives and the lives of the people they care for. You can find her on twitter @Karen4Carers.

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