Carers week 2025: celebrating the unsung heroes of our communities | Our blog

Every year, Carers Week offers us a vital opportunity to shine a light on the extraordinary dedication of unpaid carers - those who support family members, friends, partners, or neighbours living with illness, disability, or mental health challenges. At South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, we are proud to join the national campaign running from 9 to 15 June 2025, recognising the invaluable contributions carers make to our communities and the lives of those they care for. 

This year’s theme, “Caring About Equality”, calls on all of us to acknowledge the inequalities faced by carers and to work together to ensure they are truly valued, respected and supported in every aspect of their lives. As we mark Carers Week next week, we celebrate carers’ resilience, highlight the challenges they encounter and reaffirm our commitment to championing their rights and wellbeing within our Trust and beyond.

As part of our ongoing commitment to carers,  we are proud to have achieved Stage 2 Triangle of Care accreditation  - a national recognition from the Carers Trust that highlights excellence in carer involvement and support. Building on our Stage 1 success focused on inpatient services, this new milestone reflects meaningful progress across our diverse community services. To get here, teams from adult and older adult mental health services to CAMHS, addictions, perinatal, learning disability, and specialist services conducted in-depth self-assessments, evaluated their engagement practices and worked directly with carers to identify and act on areas for improvement. 

What truly sets this work apart is the collaboration at its heart. Across the Trust, Carers Leads and Carer Champions are embedded in every directorate, supported by a Trust-wide Family and Carer Committee - co-chaired by a carer - with strong links with local carer organisations. This journey has led to practical, lasting improvements - from clearer carer information packs and stronger confidentiality protocols to more inclusive training, support groups and peer-led spaces.

This poem was written by a carer at an event held at our Trust. The day was planned and led by carers, and one of the most powerful outcomes was a collaborative poetry session where carers captured their experiences in heartfelt, raw, and in-the-moment words. 

We’re pleased to help raise awareness of opportunities happening across the local community, so carers, staff, families and community members can benefit from the activities, connections and resources on offer.

For carers and families:

• Southwark carers have a series of workshops running throughout the week such as a a gentle dance and movement class, a health and wellbeing session, an emergency planning session and more.

• Imago are running various activities across the week, such as coffee mornings, a Sydenham Garden tour, a celebration event and more.

• Matthew McKenzie, a carer activist, poet, and author of ‘A Caring Mind’, who has previously been connected with our Trust as a carer, is hosting a  Carer Poetry Performance Event and Book Launch  - by carers, for carers - on Friday 13 June.

• The Carer's hub has a  programme of events  running this week and beyond. 

For professionals working with carers and families:

• Imago are hosting free Young Carers Awareness Training   online, as well as running various information stands and an online course on supporting unpaid carers in the workplace.

Carers Week invites us to look closely at how our systems, services and attitudes reflect the importance of carers. It’s also a chance to ask where we can do better - and commit to meaningful change. Whether it's sharing useful information, including carers in decisions or taking a moment to ask how they are - it all matters.