New campaign supporting UK carers to recognise their role launched

- Embracing Carers™ is helping carers in the UK to recognise their role and seek support

- By Day, By Night initiative designed to help individuals reflect and recognise their caring role

- UK chapter of Global State of Care Report highlights legislative support and resources available to carers in the UK

FELTHAM, England, Nov. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced that its Embracing Carers™ initiative has launched a new campaign to help individuals in the UK reflect and recognise their unpaid caring role sooner with a view to them accessing available support and resources faster.

Developed by Merck and guided by Carers UK and other leading international carer organisations, Embracing Carers™ is a global movement to highlight the important role of carers in society. With up to 6,000 people a day in the UK becoming carers¹, it has launched the "By Day, By Night initiative". The campaign aims to help individuals reflect on their daily lives and help those in the UK recognise their role as a carer.

To provide all UK carers with information on the support and resources available, the International Alliance of Carer Organizations (IACO) with the support of Embracing Carers™ developed a Global State of Care Report that includes a UK chapter identifying current legislation to benefit carers, best practice and opportunities to increase support across the country.

"Carers across the UK play a crucial role in the lives of loved ones and there is a strong need to help individuals reflect on their daily caring activities to help them recognise this," says Emily Holzhausen, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Carers UK. 

"One of the key goals of Embracing Carers™ is to help support carers in recognising their own role. By doing this, it not only lets those individuals know that they are not alone, but helps to bridge the gap between carers and the resources they need. As a strategic advisor to Embracing Carers™, Carers UK welcomes these ambitions, helping to improve the recognition and quality of life for carers in the UK and worldwide," added Holzhausen.

A staggering 6.5 million (around 10 per cent of the UK population)² are carers and the majority of carers take a long time to recognise their caring role. Research by Carers UK shows that over half (54%) of carers in the country took over a year to recognise their caring role and nearly a quarter (24%) took over five years to recognise their role as a carer.³

"Many of us have experienced, or will experience, what it is like to be a carer," said Belinda Byrne, Medical Director, Merck UK & Ireland. "As a company, Merck is committed to highlighting the unique needs of carers, both in the UK and around the world, to identify the necessary resources and support they need to take care of their own health. Caregiving needs to be made a public health priority and we hope that by helping individuals recognise their crucial role as a carer sooner, that they will be able to access support and resources faster," added Byrne.

Notes to editors

About Embracing Carers™
Launched in 2017, Embracing Carers^TM is a global initiative led by Merck in collaboration with leading carer organisations around the world to increase awareness and discussion about the often-overlooked needs of carers. Carer organisations collaborating with Merck include the Caregiver Action Network, Carers Australia,Carers Canada, Carers UK, Carers Worldwide, Eurocarers, National Alliance for Caregiving, International Alliance of Carer Organizations(IACO) and Shanghai Roots & Shoots, China.

About Merck
Merck is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 50,000 employees work to further develop technologies that improve and enhance life – from biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer or multiple sclerosis, cuttingedge systems for scientific research and production, to liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions. In 2016, Merck generated sales of €15.0 billion in 66 countries.

Founded in 1668, Merck is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed corporate group. Merck, Darmstadt, Germany holds the global rights to the "Merck" name and brand except in the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.

References

¹ Carers UK. About Us. Accessed 24 October, 2018. https://www.carersuk.org/about-us/why-we-re-here 
² Embracing CarersTM Global State of Care Report. Accessed 24 October, 2018
³ Carers UK. Missing out: the identification challenge, November 2016. Accessed 6 November, 2018