National Carers Week celebrated in Narrabri

National Carers Week, which ran from October 16 to 22, was honoured with a ‘Celebrating Carers – Carers Day’ held on Wednesday, October 19, at the Narrabri Aquatic Centre.

Morning tea, lunch, special guest speakers and entertainment from Narrabri’s Kodey Stanford were provided for local carers who attended the event.

The commemorative cake was cut by event organisers Narrabri Health Service memory and cognition nurse Kylie Finlay, Narrabri Carers and Caring Group coordinator Joan Griffiths and Narrabri Parkinson’s Support Group president Tricia Hadley.

Joan, Tricia and Kylie wanted to repeat the success of last year’s Carers Day.

The event was well received, with about 25 carers attending during the day’s information sessions.

Sponsored by a grant from Carers NSW and supported by the Rotary Club of Narrabri, the theme was ‘Celebrating Carers – A Million Reasons to Care.

Narrabri Community enrolled nurse Karen Baker provided an acknowledgement to country and provided information and support during the day.

Kylie Finlay read a heartfelt letter from the Prime Minister, sending his best wishes to carers and thanking them for all they do.

Kylie spoke about another Carers Week initiative which is the Cafe SOSpeso featured in a recent edition of The Courier, where the community could pay forward a coffee and cake package for carers to take advantage of, encouraging them to take a break, be social and get out and about, all factors which contribute to good mental health.

The Cafe SOSpesos are available at all cafes with the flyer displayed in Narrabri, and reports are that the community have been very generous with the project so far.

Kylie also discussed the ‘Caring about dementia’ series available through HealthWISE via a USB, QR code or by searching ‘healthwisenenw’ on YouTube, which is a series of short videos for carers of people living with dementia, including tips and hints that may help members of the community in their very important role as a carer.

Guest speakers were Helen Dugdale from Australian Brain Coaching, who discussed the importance of looking after yourself as a carer, with tips on how to achieve good sleep patterns.

Pharmacist Sarah Noonan from Narrabri Pharmacy spoke about medication management and services available at the pharmacy.

Podiatrist Chanelle McClenaghan from Helen Madden Podiatry gave an interesting talk on foot care and foot health and good shoe selection, presenting attendees with a little gift bag.

Community Health registered nurse Lavina Hill talked about skincare and the importance of water intake.

“At morning tea, we cut a celebration cake, giving three cheers to carers for all that they do,” said Kylie.

“The carers were also given little take-home bags with information, self-care checklists and gifts.

“We finished off the day with some singing by the talented Kodey Stanford.”

“National Carers Week is an opportunity to raise community awareness among all Australians about the diversity of carers and their caring roles,” she added.

“Carers provide 2.2 billion hours of unpaid care per year in Australia, and there are currently 2.65 million unpaid carers in Australia.”

The replacement value of the unpaid care provided by these valued members of our community is considered to be $77.9 billion per year in Australia.

Information was available with resources and pamphlets for carers to take home with them, including Carers Gateway, My Aged Care, and Dementia Australia.