Carer vs personal aassistant?

All about caring
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I just listened to LBC radio’s Nick Ferrari covering how we ought to be named. Supposedly, an international (?) body (didn’t catch the name) is recommending that we be referred to as ‘personal assistants’ and not carers! Nick spent a lot of time on it with several callers.

If this topic is to debated nationally, it would be nice for CARERS UK to be asked for an opinion.

Carers sorely deserve higher recognition and value but I doubt that changing to being referred to as personal assistants is the way to do it!

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@Rosemary_1706 was this referring to paid carers or people caring for a family member or friend?

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I’ve just relistened to the discussion. (2 hours, 6 minutes into Nick’s show)

Instruction from the equalities and human rights commission says the word ‘carer’ can be considered offensive/derogatory.

Also, the descriptors ‘disabled parking’, ‘vulnerable’ and ‘ill people’
were under attack!

The discussion included both paid and unpaid carers!

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Imagine if the government spent the money this research is costing on actually helping carers and those needing care, now that would be a thing!!

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I prefer “family carer”. PA’s are for chief executives!!!

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Personal assistant is a term in use already for paid workers. Until about 1991, care assistant was in common use for paid workers until the word carer got hijacked. Carer originated as a term to describe us…not paid workers.

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@Charlesh47 do you remember the “reclaim the name” campaign ?
It was at the time that the Media were using “Carer” indiscriminately to describe PAID carer assistants and UNPAID family carers. I recall that Jeremy Vine took up the gauntlet and since then he has been very good at differentiating between “them and us” ! Unfortunately the message didn’t get through to other media sources so the word “carer” has become a generic term for anyone who cares in whatever capacity :roll_eyes:

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In the early 2000s, the Guardian’s editorial policy ensured differentiation: but they’ve gone back to the old ways, and now carer is used for everything.

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Nananana and Eun and a few others used to be offended when paid carers were referred to as Carers on the forum. There should be a distinction as the roles and challenges are very different.

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Thank you for providing the history behind this @Susieq and @Charlesh47. I wasn’t aware.

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I have to agree that just using “Carer” to cover paid people who work set hours and go home as opposed to those of us who slog our guts out 24/7 can be confusing. When mentioning I am a Carer I have been asked ‘what do you do at the weekends?’ ‘Where are you going on holiday this year?’ and all that crap. Assumptions are made that we work set hours and get paid holidays by those who should know better.

Even when I grabbed our MP he asked me ‘so what do you do when you get time off - how do you relax?’ I asked him what “time off” was and he was shocked. THAT is the level of understanding.

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Typically people don’t think that you’re committed 24/7 365 days a year!

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