There is a lot of confusion about the term 'carer'. Carers Victoria describes a carer as 'a person who provides care and support to family members or friends who have a chronic or acute condition, mental illness, disability, or who are frail aged.
In Victoria alone there are nearly 700,000 carers and many of them are isolated because they can't get time or the opportunity to socialise, to work or to engage with other people because of their caring responsibilities. So the mc2 Connected Carers project has been a way of supporting these family carers. They are able to interact online and share their experiences (good and bad) and to find out information, use links and ask questions. For many it has been extremely useful place to go to find out what is happening, and it has also greatly enhanced their computer and Internet skills.
Another really wonderful aspect of mc2 is that it has enabled us to offer basic computer and Internet training courses for older carers who have never used a computer before. This has opened a whole new world for these older carers (some in their 70s and 80s) and they love it. We have created a 3rd Age Carers Group and hope to add more members as we are able to train them up to the skill level needed.
mc2 has been a really good introductory place to connect with other carers. Many carers who have met this way now support each other by emailing directly rather than via mc2 because they do not have much Internet download capacity (because they can't afford it).
Overall, it is an excellent project. It would be even better, if the server had more capacity so that it was faster and if we could somehow get the money to provide carers with computers and cable Internet access.
Cheers,
Judith Oliver
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Anyone, Anytime could become a carer! |
