Carers and the cared-for invited to tell their pandemic stories

The academics are looking for everything from photography and poetry, to favourite recipes and pieces of music that tell the stories of carers and those who need care through the Covid-19 pandemic.

The chosen pieces will be displayed in an online exhibition as part of this year’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Science.

The exhibition will be curated by experts from the University of Sheffield’s Sustainable Care Programme – which brings together an international team of researchers to develop in-depth knowledge of how social care affects us all, and how we might be able to build better systems of care in the future.

The academics hope the exhibition will give a voice to carers and those who receive and need care, who have faced enormous challenges in staying safe and adapting to different ways of communicating and interacting with their families and communities.

Professor Sue Yeandle, Director of the Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities (CIRCLE) at the University of Sheffield, said: “One result of the Covid-19 pandemic has been a focus of attention on the lives of unpaid carers, care workers and those who receive support. We think we have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to keep those people and their experiences at the centre of public consciousness as we begin to rebuild.

“Academic research in this area is crucial to help inform policy makers and social care professionals about the very real challenges the system faces as the world’s population ages. But it is just as important that we all see and hear from carers and the cared-for. Their experiences and voices too often get drowned out as others seek solutions to the challenges of their daily lives.

“This exhibition is designed to give a voice to the unheard and put faces to the unseen, those people who quietly give so much of their own lives to care for others.”

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