In Vila Nova de Famalicão, informal carers are also a concern for the Requião Social and Parish Centre, which through the ‘Cuidar Maior’ project supports those who provide regular or permanent care to people who are dependent. 

The project, which was set up in 2020 to prevent and intervene early in the fight against burnout among informal carers, has already reached around 500 people. For the Mayor of Famalicão, this initiative ‘should evolve in the municipality and be replicated throughout the country’.

‘The informal carer is a central and essential figure within families made up of people in situations of dependency. They are someone who is very dedicated to the needs of others, but they are also a citizen who should be properly supported,’ said Mário Passos during the meeting “The (In)visibility of Caring” last Friday. The mayor added that ‘this is a concern and an area of intervention that I would like to see worked on by the various institutions in Famalicão’.

Mário Passos therefore invited the other social institutions in the municipality to ‘replicate the example of the Requião Social and Parish Centre’, through CLAS - the Local Council for Social Action. The Requião Social and Parish Centre helps informal carers with health and administrative procedures, as well as providing training.

The meeting ‘The (In)visibility of Caring’, organised as part of the Informal Carer Month celebrations, was also attended by the Secretary of State for Social Action and Inclusion, Clara Marques Mendes. She highlighted the recently approved access to the status of informal carer for people who are not relatives of the patient, and recalled the Portuguese government's desire to make the carer's rest effective.