Centre for Carers Research

There are about 900,000 informal, family and friend carers in NSW, caring for people with disabilities, mental ill health or chronic life-restricting illness, along with those who are aged and frail. The majority are women.

Project leads: Carol Mills and Edwina Deakin, Institute for Public Policy and Governance
Duration: 2018-2021 (initial grant)

While one in nine people in NSW are in caring roles, carers are largely hidden. They experience various and overlapping layers of precarity.

Established in 2018, the Centre for Carers Research is co-funded by UTS and the NSW Department of Community and Justice through the Carers Investment Program. Based within the Institute for Public Policy and Governance at UTS, the centre aims to encourage, produce and disseminate high-quality research that provides evidence for effective policies and programs for carers.

The centre is committed to amplifying and embedding carer lived experience into all research and policy activities, including a Carer-in-Residence Program.

What impact are we creating? 

The centre is working collaboratively with carers, researchers, practitioners, non-government organisations, government partners and the broader community to increase the understanding of the role and value of, and to better support, carers in our community. 

Who are we working with?

  • Carers NSW
  • NSW Council of Social Service
  • NSW Department of Communities and Justice
  • Carers research scholars including Professor Michael Fine (Macquarie University) 
  • UTS IMPACCT (Improving Palliative, Aged and Chronic Care through Clinical Research and Translation)
  • UTS Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion
  • UTS Design Innovation Research Centre
  • UTS Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation
Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.