Newsletter #2
Dear Reader,
A warm welcome to the second edition of the WELL CARE newsletter!
We are delighted to share the latest news from our journey to support mental health and wellbeing for informal carers and long-term care workers across Europe. These past months have been filled with inspiring exchanges, fresh insights, and meaningful progress.
We are proud to highlight the publication of the WELL CARE Guide to Investing in Care Partnerships: Working Towards Implementation. This practical and forward-looking guide is written to support project partners as they develop, promote, implement, and evaluate practices that support the mental wellbeing and resilience of informal carers and long-term care (LTC) workers. By providing a range of resources and references, it aims to bridge theory and practice in a way that is both instructional and inspirational. We hope this resource can also be useful to any other stakeholder working on developing supportive care partnerships, offering them the benefit of lessons learned by those who have come before us.
In February, our partnership was honoured to present WELL CARE at a policy event on mental health initiated by the Directorate-General for Research within the European Commission. This opportunity has helped to strengthen our network and shine a spotlight on the importance of mental health in care work carried out by both informal carers and LTC workers.
As part of our efforts to keep you informed and connected to key developments in the field of Mental Health and Care, we’re happy to share two useful resources from our wider network. The first is a new research paper looking at policy approaches to undeclared care work in the EU, helping to shed light on a complex and often hidden part of the care sector. The second is a Policy Brief from Eurocarers that brings together takeaways from national reports on the implementation of the Council Recommendation on access to high-quality long-term care—with a special focus on what it means for informal carers. We hope you’ll find these materials helpful as part of the broader conversation WELL CARE aims to support.
We warmly invite you to explore the articles featured in this issue. As always, thank you for being with us on this path – we look forward to what lies ahead and remain at your disposal for any questions or feedback.
Professor Elizabeth Hanson,
Principal Investigator
WELL CARE deliverables and outcomes
New publication!
The WELL CARE Guide to investing in care partnerships: working towards implementation
In the WELL CARE project, we join forces as researchers, advocacy partners and other stakeholders at the European, national, and local level – together working to improve the mental wellbeing and resilience of informal carers and long-term care workers. We develop and promote care partnerships that aim to improve the coordination, integration, and mutual recognition of care and caring activities performed by these two groups of caregivers. But what do we mean by care partnerships, and how can these benefit caregivers’ wellbeing? And what practical steps can we take to promote, develop and implement such care partnerships? These and other questions are addressed in our recent publication: ‘The WELL CARE Guide to investing in care partnerships: working towards implementation’.
Events
WELL CARE presented during a Policy Event on Mental Health
On 18th February, our partnership was honoured to present WELL CARE at a policy event on mental health, organised by the Directorate-General for Research within the European Commission. This hybrid seminar aimed to bridge the gap between ongoing research projects and policymakers at both EU and national levels. Approximately 40 participants attended the event.
European Mental Health Week 2025
Set up and run by WELL CARE partner Mental Health Europe, European Mental Health Week 2025 is taking place between the 19th and 25th of May. The theme this year is Care for mental health, invest in social rights and organisations and individuals are invited to support the week and get involved.
Policy developments
Eurocarers publishes a new Policy Brief: National Reports on the implementation of the Council Recommendation on access to high-quality Long-Term Care: Policy Takeaways for Informal Carers
Following the publication of the National Report on Long-Term Care last November and the internal survey circulated, Eurocarers has launched a Policy Brief. This provides a concise analysis of these key documents to help carers’ organisations navigate the documents and understand how their respective governments are approaching care and caring.
Research
New Research Paper on policy approaches to undeclared care work in the EU
The scale of undeclared care work (paid care work that is lawful but not declared to public authorities) in the EU is considerable. Recent estimates suggest that 6.8 million undeclared workers provide care or household services across the EU, with 2.1 million specifically in the care sector. Undeclared care workers are predominantly women and often are migrants.
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