It All Starts With a Conversation
June 09, 2025Posted by:
At PeoplePlus, we run the Gloucestershire Carers Hub a dedicated service supporting unpaid carers across the county. It’s not just a helpline or an information desk. It’s a listening ear. A starting point. A bridge to services, understanding, and real, tailored support.
This Carers Week (9th –15th June), we’re turning up the volume on a conversation that needs to get louder. This year’s theme, Caring About Equality, confronts a hard truth: unpaid carers are too often overlooked, under supported, and expected to carry the emotional, physical, and mental burden of care with minimal backup. We believe that needs to change.
Across Gloucestershire, carers are managing medication, cooking meals, lifting loved ones in and out of bed, attending appointments, providing emotional care, and juggling work or studies all without recognition, rest, or the right systems behind them. They’re doing what needs to be done, until they’re exhausted and even then, they keep going.
That’s where the Gloucestershire Carers Hub steps in. We meet carers where they need us: at the hospital bedside, in GP waiting rooms, through phone calls, and in community centres. We don’t wait for people to reach breaking point we start with a conversation. And that one moment “How are you really doing?” can be the catalyst for change.
We’re out and about across the county all week.
Here’s where to find us:
- Mon 9 June – Dowty’s Sports and Social Club, Gloucester
Event with local professionals, offering face to face support for unpaid carers - Tues 10 June – Gloucester Royal Hospital Atrium (9:30–2:00)
Hospital carers are often missed we’re showing up to change that - Thurs 12 June – Stroud Hospital (9:30–2:00)
Connecting with NHS staff and families at Foundation Trust sites - Fri 13 June – Big Health Day (9:30–2:30)
Focused on disability, sensory loss, and mental health. We’ll be there listening, learning, helping.
The support we provide isn’t a luxury, it’s a lifeline. From emotional check ins and practical information to tailored guidance, respite opportunities, and access to community services, everything we offer is free. Because care shouldn’t come with a price tag least of all for the people giving so much of it.
We also recognise that caring doesn’t stop at our front doors. At PeoplePlus, many of us are carers too. That’s why we’ve built internal spaces like our own Carers Group, where staff can speak freely, get support, and share the load. Work, life, and care aren’t separate silos they overlap in messy, human ways. So we create space to honour that reality, and to support each other through it.
Carers Week is a chance to spotlight all of this but more importantly, it’s a call to action. It’s not enough to simply say “thank you.” We need to build systems that understand and adapt to carers' realities. That means:
- Recognising unpaid carers early especially those who don’t even realise they are carers
- Ensuring access to flexible support that fits real life pressures
- Embedding services like ours into the places carers are already showing up hospitals, schools, workplaces
- Listening first, advising second
This week, and every week, we’re not just raising awareness. We’re raising the bar. We believe Gloucestershire Carers Hub is a model of what should be happening everywhere practical, proactive support that honours carers not with platitudes, but with presence, resources, and respect.
So if you’re a carer, or if you know someone who might be one without even realising it talk to us. Because when carers feel seen, heard, and held, everything changes. For them. And for everyone they care for.
Visit gloucestershirecarershub.co.uk or call us directly. We’re here. You’re not alone.
June 09, 2025Posted by:
