We’re scaling our scaffolded peer-to-peer caring support model Weavers across Australia & New Zealand

In their journey to answer this question, they came across a cohort of people who had fallen off the radar: carers. 

“The more we talked with carers in understanding their experiences, we realised the extent to which they were isolated, overwhelmed and suffering from increased levels of stress, depression and where their own needs were coming last," says Barbara Binns, Weavers Implementation Lead. 

The researchers found that:

• Caring responsibilities often dominated relationships, leaving carers frequently feeling strained and stretched

• In some instances, family relationships were suffering

• Many partners commented on the feeling that they had lost common pursuits and the intimacy that their relationship was founded on 

In the same time frame, there was a shift in the funding and administration of aged care services in Australia and the Productivity Commission released a weighty report on the financial future of aged care services. The report called for a new kind of care that focused on people’s lived experiences rather than stats and data; care that moved beyond servicing basic needs to enabling great living in late adulthood.

The need for a solution like Weavers – a scaffolded peer-to-peer support for those caring for someone close to them – was clear.

Weavers connects people who are caring for a loved one with someone who has lived experience of being a carer. 

“Weavers is co-designed with carers, which means we listen to the voices of carers and work with them to design a program that actually works for them,” says Barbara. “That includes the areas that support needs to focus on, how that support happens and what outcomes carers want to see.”

The 1:1 individualised scaffolded peer to peer support that Weavers provides means we can ensure that every carer gets the support they need on their own terms. “We ask, ‘What kind of support do you need? How and when do you need that to happen?’” says Barbara. 

“This means the carer doesn’t have to be available every Tuesday at 2pm for a group session; instead, they can get support through face-to-face catch ups, through phone calls, through emails, through texts, through video conferencing, whatever and whenever works for them,” she says. 

“We knew from the insights gathered that carers needed a greater variety of ways in which support could be found. Weavers focuses on finding solutions that are relevant to an individual's unique situation,”  says Barbara.

Since launching in 2013, Weavers has supported more than 100 unpaid carers in partnership with 5 implementation partners across Australia and New Zealand.

These carers have told us receiving non-judgemental emotional support from someone who ‘gets it’ means they:

• Have increased knowledge and assertiveness in connecting to services and supports

• Have increased capacity to cope when the caring needs change

• More effective use of informal supports and networks

• More effective and timely use of formal services

Other carer outcomes include decreased depression, increased self efficacy in the carer role, and increased assertiveness about their own needs.

“If Weavers didn’t exist, we'd have many carers not accessing any support at all, continuing to feel overwhelmed, continuing to have poor health and wellbeing outcomes, experiencing burnout,” says Barbara. “We’d also have people who are receiving care in the home who are not receiving sufficient services. Because if you can't navigate a system, how do you know what you're entitled to access? If you can't work through a problem because you're so overwhelmed you can't think straight, how are you going to make confident choices?” 

“If you have a reduced capacity to care, the person being cared for is more likely to enter into expensive care, or a formal care arrangement that doesn’t fit with the family's needs and wants,” she says. “If you’re unsupported as a carer, it puts the person being cared for at additional risk of being placed in residential care, hospitalised, or not receiving adequate and relevant levels of care. So caring for the carer has immense ongoing and deep benefits to society.”

“If these unpaid carers weren’t caring, the aged care system would fall apart,” says Barbara. “46% of people in need of care rely solely on support from friends and family, and conservative estimates put the financial value of carers at $6.5 billion per year.”