KAREN ANDERSON: What did YOU do with your 'extra' day this year (and why it matters)?
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I started to write this month’s column on February 28 meaning an extra 24 hours we don’t normally have as it is a leap year. What did you do with your extra day this year?
Not having the luxury of a fortune to fall back on, I was working as normal. Wouldn’t it be so much better if for this extra leap year day, the Government said: “Well, we don’t need that extra work day so let’s have a bank holiday for everyone instead” like they do for coronations and the like?
So, how would you spend a full day of no responsibility to do whatever takes your fancy? At first I thought of a whole stream of things that all began with “catch up on…”, but that was just work under a different guise. Things like catching up on the housework, catching up on some admin by sorting out a new mobile phone tariff or paying bills, catching up the tidying of the garden ready for the new season. It's all work that we aren’t being paid to do.
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I then realised that this is because I have been hard-wired over many years to think about what needs to be done to make life easier for those around me above and beyond everything else – especially enjoyment, entertainment or relaxation for myself. In common with many carers, this is just what happens as we get on with the job of looking after our loved one who cannot manage without our help.
Most carers love the person they care for deeply and that is what keeps them going day in and day out. But everyone has a point of no return when the hit burnout if they don’t get any kind of break. And this is what I find incredible that Governments do not understand.
Respite services disappeared virtually overnight when Covid lockdowns started in 2020, and for loads of folk they didn’t return or not in the same form or quantity as they had had before. In a way, I was lucky as we had nothing to lose and have had nothing since either!
I am also fortunate in the boy being old enough to be on his own for a few hours so that I can get out and about and meet friends and even get a whole night away now and again.
But many hundreds or even thousands of carers are not in this position and will just wake up on leap year day with the same sense of dread and exhaustion as they have every other day that they face their caring tasks.
Most carers love the person they care for deeply and that is what keeps them going day in and day out. But everyone has a point of no return when the hit burnout if they don’t get any kind of break. And this is what I find incredible that Governments do not understand.
If you don’t support the most vulnerable in society with good services and give those who care for them access to a regular break, you end up with a much more complex and expensive issue on your hands.
The failure to grasp the importance of social care is one of the biggest among a whole raft of failings that should shame MPs an MSPs of all political persuasions. Perhaps their leap day off could be spent ‘catching up with’ constituents who are at their wits end, and spending some time seeing how people are struggling just to get a few hours of peace and quiet to reset themselves and recover some energy to face 1st March and the rest of the year in a more positive state.
Karen is Mum to an autistic son in his twenties 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 and Instagram @Karen4Carers.
