Every week on Wednesday mornings, Donald Hutera sits down in his kitchen, logs on to Zoom and allows pianist Romain, hired by City and Hackney Carers Centre, to guide him through the songs of the day.
“We’re all on mute,” explains Donald. “You sing in your kitchen as loudly as you want. I learn about myself. And it’s a shared thing. I know there are other people living in whatever their circumstances are, that are also dealing with issues of isolation or loneliness or non-connectedness. And it’s a kind of virtual tissue between us.”
Donald is one of the 17,000 carers currently residing in Hackney, where he looks after his long-term partner Allen. Since becoming a carer at the beginning of 2017, Donald has used the support systems put in place by City and Hackney Carers Centre to get through difficult times.
“A lot of carers are unpaid, unsung and unrecognised,” he says. “But I feel very well supported [in Hackney] speaking from my own experience, so very well supported by City and Hackney Carers, in particular. I find those people have been just wonderful in so many ways.”
City and Hackney Carers Centre was founded in 1996 to meet the need for support for unpaid carers in Hackney. The centre offers advice and information for carers, counselling services and wellbeing activities.
According to CEO Joanna Brunt, the centre looks to support people who “had to give up their job to care for a loved one or are struggling financially or struggling emotionally to cope with the impact of a diagnosis of a loved one or exhaustion from the physical care they’re doing on top of, you know, the rest of their life”.
The centre is currently in touch with around 2,000 out of the 17,000 carers with demand for support increasing following the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Demand for support greater than ever
The pandemic has impacted carers greatly with more carers self-identifying for the first time due to the vaccine roll-out, which means that they are in priority groups.
“We call them hidden carers,” explains Joanna. “A lot of the time people say, ‘well, that’s just my mum, or that’s just my dad, I help them, that’s what I’m supposed to do’. But I think the vaccine has made them think, ‘actually, what they’re describing there is me, I’m a carer’.”
With more people identifying as carers, more people also seek out the support that is available in the borough.
The counselling service, especially, has experienced an increase in demand, according to Joanna: “Referrals have been going up and up and up since November last year. Over 50% of the users of the counselling service are carers for people with dementia and I think that does tell the story of how much they’ve been affected by the pandemic.”
Joanna recognises that it can be difficult for carers to find the time and privacy to use the counselling services, but she stresses the importance for carers to take time to look after themselves.
“I think that’s the thing that carers need and crave so much is just time to themselves and have a little break,” she explains. “We try to offer activities that will take carers away from their caring role even if it’s just for an hour to give them some tools to help them relax.”
For Donald Hutera, the support from the City and Hackney Carers Centre has been vital to helping him cope. As well as the weekly choir, Donald has also made use of the counselling service, Coaching for Carers sessions and Brocals group sessions, which aim to combat loneliness and isolation for older men in Hackney.
“We know that men probably prefer to get their support when it’s not really offered as support, if that makes sense,” says Joanna of the Brocals initiative. “So we try bringing them together around an activity and then we might start chatting about things that are stressing them out. Whereas women seem happier to come to something that’s labelled as a support group or a coffee morning.”
Carers at their ‘breaking point’
For Donald, the support he has received in Hackney has been vital for how he has managed to handle his role as an unpaid carer, especially during the pandemic. He says: “I think I’ve coped pretty well, partly due to the creative outlets and support [from City and Hackney Carers Centre]. Caring for someone and the anxieties that come about with their well-being and their health, it’s quite immense. It’s quite a responsibility. Anything that is in place that can facilitate the ease of that and the support of that, that itself needs to be supported.”
Joanna also stresses the importance of support for carers, especially in the light of the pandemic, which has caused many initiatives to be put on hold until meeting face-to-face is again possible.
She says: “I just think carers need those support services back in place as soon as possible… I do understand the stresses and strains that these services are under, but I think many carers really are at breaking point. The sooner the better that any kind of support can be put in place to give them a little break, you know, just an hour here or there, it’s just going to be so important.”
But even with the limitations caused by the pandemic, Donald is thankful to live in Hackney with the support being offered there. “I am truly grateful. That’s the bottom line; gratitude,” he says.
He has found ways of coping, one of these being a daily walk with Allen. He says: “Finsbury Park is beloved to me and I think Allen would feel something similar, maybe not quite so effusive as that, but I just adore going, it’s been a real lifeline.”
Words by Connie Dimsdale and Ida Hansen
