OU researcher calls for more support for carers

An OU lecturer and researcher who became the first-ever Professor of Care, Carers, and Caring, will call for more support for carers to reduce the inequalities they experience in her inaugural lecture this month (6 December 2023).

Mary Larkin, Professor of Care, Carers and Caring in the OU’s Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, will address this subject in her inaugural lecture: Family Carers: Beyond Visibility, which will take place at the OU’s Milton Keynes campus on Wednesday 6 December from 12:00-13:00.

Along with co-author, Professor Alisoun Milne, Emeritus Professor in Social Gerontology and Social Work at the University of Kent, Professor Larkin, will present their new book: Family Carers and Caring – What’s it all about, which brings together a wide range of material and evidence about carers from diverse sources and is underpinned by principles of social justice and rights, focusing on how inequalities intersect with caring.

Professor Larkin said:

“The statistics are a call to action: 2.1 million carers reduce their working hours and 2.6 million give up work to care in the UK each year. Thirty-nine percent of carers say that they struggle to make ends meet, which means they cut back on essentials, get into arrears with their bills and fall into debt. Carers are 50% more likely to report poor ‘physical and psychological well-being’ than people without caring responsibilities.

“What we don’t always realise is three in five of us will become carers in some capacity in our lifetime and that caring is relevant to us all. In my inaugural lecture, I will call on everyone there to use what power and influence they have to address this prominent and universally-challenging 21^st century issue that will affect us all.”

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