Carers Week is Australia's annual celebration of working, volunteer and home-based family carers. Each year, thousands of Australians take the time to recognise the wonderful contribution that carers make.

Carers can be work colleagues, parents, partners, brothers, sisters, friends, sons or daughters.

Their dedication to supporting children or adults who have a disability, mental illness, drug and alcohol dependency, chronic condition, terminal illness, or who are frail, should be recognised and celebrated – and this is a great time to show carers in your circle that you appreciate them.

Did you know that over one in 10 people in NSW are carers?  They make an enormous and often unrecognised contribution to our community.

Carers not only make a positive contribution to the lives of the people they care for, but also to the workplace and to the broader community.

They often go about their work quietly out of the public eye and for this reason they often don’t get the credit that they deserve.

There are 750,000 carers in NSW, which equates to more than one person in every 10, and 90,000 of those carers are under 25-years old.

Carers Week is Australia's annual celebration of family carers and each year thousands of Australians take the time to recognise the wonderful contribution that carers make — this year you should be one of them!

So think about something special you can do to say ‘thank you’ to a carer you know – especially if it is a working carer, as so many of you tend not to recognise that you are a carer and therefore often don’t get any support or recognition – not even from each other.

Over 150 carers in local and state celebrations during Carers Week will be presented with an Award.

Categories for the awards include Senior Carer, Caring Partner, Young Carer, Carer-Friendly Workplace, Carer Support Group, Caring Family or Parent, Caring Volunteer or Community Member, Caring School.

Eight outstanding carers representing each of the categories will receive a special award at a prestigious state ceremony to be held in Sydney on 17 October 2011.

You can find out what is happening in your region during Carers Week by visiting:

http://www.carersaustralia.com.au/?/carersweek