Carers like me connect patients and doctors – so why are we so often made to feel invisible? | Emily Kenway

Mary is 58 , and lives in Wales with her husband and their adult son.

As a result of epilepsy in infancy, her son has global developmental delay.

Mary ’s son requires medication to prevent excess drooling.

But in her diary, she explained that the medication was changed and the new type was less effective he was having dangerous coughing fits.

Mary reported this to his medical team but, in her words: “It was a feeling of, if it wasn’t witnessed by a health professional, it didn” A few weeks later , she had a meeting in her home with some of his care team.

Emily Kenway is a social-policy doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh and author of Who Cares: the Hidden Crisis of Caregiving and How We Solve It.

She says carers lubricate the system, enabling it to function when care-receiving loved ones cannot.

They are the unseen but essential lifeblood of the health and care system, she says.