Carer Gateway supports highlighted at Uniting Vic.Tas Beechworth forum

About 20 people attended the free event at Old Beechworth Gaol hosted by Uniting Vic.Tas and Murray Primary Health Network.

Uniting Carer Gateway program manager Laura Humphris said the session aimed to raise awareness of carers and the services available to support them.

"We hope to break the stigma that we find is sometimes present in regional communities around caring," she said.

"More so asking for help because it's really just expected that they will be caring for their family members."

The speakers discussed strategies for stress management and wellbeing for carers, the resources available through the Australian government's Carer Gateway program and how to access support from My Aged Care.

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"It's traditionally very difficult for carers to give up their time to attend these kind of events," Miss Humphris said.

"We really wanted to focus on Beechworth, we know they have an ageing population, and they are sometimes left out of the loop of the larger events - they're always the ones that are having to travel.

"The really nice thing was we had a representative from a local carer support group present and we noticed that the carers seemed to be mingling, so we hope that they made some community connections with each other."

According to Uniting Vic.Tas, there are about 2.6 million carers in Australia.

For more information about carer support available, go to carergateway.gov.au.

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