Carerou

Insight & Design Strategy

Fostering Confident Care: Breaking Isolation and Guilt in the Caring Ecosystem

A few takeaways from Young Adult Carers:

• Routine Management: Routines simplify tasks but can trap carers in a cycle, limiting time for rest and personal activities.
• Disconnect from Existing Support: There is a noticeable gap between available support services and their actual engagement with carers. Young adult carers often disengage from these resources, struggling to find time or access activities that are relevant and engaging for their age group.
• Need for Boundaries: Carers struggle with guilt when prioritising their own needs to seek support and spend time on themselves, highlighting the importance of boundaries for personal well-being.

Our design journey is far from a linear line, it have been a continuous loop of research, ideation and testing:

1. Our first ideation stage created a service where we can create a social connection intervention between carers. We questioned ourself "Would it be impactful to connect to other carers?", through various testing approaches, we found that the need behind the social connection is to take breaks, and the direct connection might be too intimidating for carers. Carers, like everyone else, often want to engage with non-carers and communities outside their caring responsibilities. Would it be impactful to connect to other carers?
2. During the second ideation, we tried out a top-down approach, which suggest council to set up a carer champion, but after validating with carer charities, we found that adding another layer of support might not solve the problem, as the gap is not due to a lack of support, there are already many existing support, but they feel like another chorus to do. This service is also very idealistic and not feasible, requiring significant changes in local councils which can be possible in a very utopian setting.
3. We then started to think from bottom-up and grass-root perspective. What if their need is actually for them to create boundaries, where they can connect and detach on their caregiving responsibilities? 

We found that under the current situation of Kay, as well as other carers now are in one bubble, they are overly involved which create the sense of guilt and loss their identity outside their caring responsibilities. We want our service to draw boundaries in a guilt-free environment by utilising available support systems and networks that creates a Space for themselves to grow as an individual and a carer, time to connect and time to detach and space for them to connect. 

Solution

Carerou: Nurturing Connections and Respite in Daily Life

We tried to research more on their daily activities and look on somewhere we can do the interventions, we are aware that they are really busy, less motivation to engage with the support, and they focus on caring responsibilities at home and studying at school or university. We found that the only time they are not a "carer" and "student" are when they are not in both places, so what if we use the time where they are comuting (wether to education spaces, pharmacist, grocery shopping, etc) for the intervention?

We discovered that the dual identity of a student and carer creates an opportunity for intervention during their commute or transition time, which brings us into developing Carerou, to transform daily commutes into mindful walking experiences and respite time for carers. This function as the first step to engage carers like Kay.

Carerou offers caregivers alternate routes for daily journeys, helping carers to practice mindfulness, discover hidden neighbourhood gems and feel like they are taken care by the community invisibly by ques in their neighbourhood. The service has digital as well as physical touchpoints. The Carerou app suggests routes for mindful walks, end of journey reflections and an option for carers to pin their discoveries on the map. This adds a co-creative element to the service, infusing the routes with a sense of community and shared experience. On the ground, collaboration with local businesses establishes physical 'Care Corners' in the neighbourhood. Caregivers can find these safe spaces during their journeys and enjoy benefits like discounts, early access, or simply a friendly conversation with a local. This can increased familiarity with the neighbourhood, strengthen connections with community support systems and the environment.

Our service helps build the habit of taking regular respites and noticing beauty in ordinary things. Carers can develop personal identity and interests, while being taken care by the community. Our vision is to help carers prevent burnout, so that they can offer compassionate care and empower them as vital members of the healthcare system.

USER TESTING

We significantly improved our project by involving various stakeholders throughout the process. Initially, we engaged with caregivers to gain a deeper understanding of their needs and challenges, complementing our external research with their lived experiences. Later, we collaborated with UK-based carers organisations, conducting co-creation sessions that broadened our perspective on the relationships between carers, organisations, and local councils. This collaboration provided us with valuable insights into stakeholder dynamics and revealed specific intervention opportunities. It also helped map our ideas and tag the most impactful and feasible one. We conducted user testing with both carers organisations and students with part-time jobs. This step allowed us to evaluate the service's impact across different user archetypes and personas, refining our approach to ensure it effectively meets the diverse needs of its users.

impact

Through user testing, we received positive feedback, indicating that Carerou helps YAC feel less guilty about taking mini breaks, encouraging them to incorporate respite into their routines. As they explore alternative routes, they become more familiar with their neighbourhood, which is the first step towards engaging with local spaces and communities. This engagement allows them to develop their personal identity and interests, while being subtly supported by the community. By creating space for themselves to connect and detach as needed, YAC avoid becoming overly involved and overwhelmed. This approach not only helps prevent YAC from becoming NEET but also enhances their overall well-being, ultimately reducing the likelihood of needing urgent assistance in the future. It focuses on the practice of mindfulness during daily travels. Our vision is to prevent caregiver burnout and empower them as essential providers of compassionate care within the healthcare system.