Collaborative Projects & Partnerships

Family Carers Ireland leads and participates in a number of research projects in partnership with academic researchers to improve the carer evidence base.

Current Partnerships

The CAREWELL Project: Promoting health and self-care among family carers in the workplace (Attracta Lafferty, University College Dublin)

A team of researchers at University College Dublin, in partnership with Family Carers Ireland, are undertaking a four year research project to examine how family carers can be best supported to balance work with care. In particular, the CAREWELL project aims to promote health and self-care behaviours among working family carers through the development of an evidence-informed workplace programme for carers working in public and private work settings. See https://carewellproject.com. 

This project is funded by the Health Research Board.

Hidden Harm: Safeguarding Family Carers from Carer Harm (Safe_FCarer ), Dr Sarah Donnelly, University College Dublin

Safe_FCarer is a nine-month mixed methods study (secondary data analysis, focus groups and co-design) whose overall is to gain deeper insights into the experience of family carers experiencing harm by the person they care for and to develop and co-design information and education resources for family carers, Family Carers Ireland staff and other professionals in order to better understand, prevent and respond to carer harm.

This project is funded by the Irish Research Council, New Foundations Award 2021.

Sharing the Caring: Young carers access to and experience of carer supports in Ireland (YOUNGCARERS), Dr. Carol Kelleher, University College Cork

YOUNGCARERS is a nine-month mixed methods study (online survey and three online workshops) whose overall aim is to improve the recognition, representation, and engagement of young carers in Ireland. Underpinned by a Public-Patient Involvement (PPI) approach, YOUNGCARERS, a partnership between UCC, Family Carers Ireland (FCI), the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union (ISSU) and UCC Students Union, will explore how best to support and facilitate the representation and engagement of young carers with policy makers, based on young carers’ perspectives.

This project is funded by the Irish Research Council, New Foundations Award 2021.