In 'Glad to Care' awareness week 2021, Jane reflects on caring as something of a Cinderella quality and skill which we ignore at our peril.

Did you know that this is ‘Glad to care’ week (5–9 July)?

The #GladToCare campaign launched in 2018. It was designed to boost the profile of – and celebrate – carers who work extremely hard usually with little public recognition. The Care sector has received more attention during the Covid pandemic for sad reasons. Initial neglect, poor resourcing and protection led to far too many avoidable deaths of people living and working in care homes related to the Covid-19 virus. Greater awareness should now make it harder to ignore people who need care and those who give it. But is there an underlying reluctance among us to admit more broadly how important care is?

An important part of Result CIC’s approach is promoting self-awareness and self-care. Put simply, you cannot support others well if you do not look after yourself. However, there can be a tendency to undervalue care and self-care. In many situations, especially with demanding work or family roles, admitting you need support, time, or a break yourself can be tantamount to admitting to weakness.

How did we reach this point? Perhaps the line is sometimes not clearly enough drawn between selfish behaviour (not considering others’ points of view or needs) and self-care. It is important to be able to distinguish between the two. 

Effective self-care starts with self-awareness. Make sure you check in fully with yourself regularly. Ask yourself: ‘How am I physically, mentally and emotionally?’. Try to notice what drains you or triggers a downward spiral, as well as when you need a break or a boost. Take time to discover what works best for you. With self-care, there is no ‘should’.

To help you, we have published a number of practical articles about well-being including on kindness. We also provide free resources which are worth trying out if you want to up your self-care game:

• Self-coaching: a constructive framework to think through an issue or big question you may need to answer.
• Lower my stress: a tool to understand yourself more fully.
• Making personal shifts: a framework for approaching upcoming changes constructively.

So let’s celebrate those who are glad to care and also be glad to exercise care for ourselves. We will all feel better for it!

If your organisation would like to boost its self-awareness and well-being, we invite you to try our free short needs analysis and talk to us about what you would like to achieve.