Who do we mean when we refer to carers and specifically an unpaid family or friend carer?
The term care is often understood or taken as someone who is a paid professional and maybe works in a care home or for an agency.
We define it as people who provide unpaid care for family, friends, neighbours, etc. Not health care professionals supporting someone, who couldn’t manage without their help.
Can you give me an example of an Unpaid Carer
Every situation is unique.
They may be family, friend or even a neighbour. Their situation, age, who they care for, the reason for the care, financial resources and care they provide all vary. It might be a wife looking after her husband with dementia, someone looking after their partner with cancer.
It may a parent carer caring for their child who has a disability. It could be young adult carers looking after a parent with a mental health challenge or supporting with the sibling that has a disability or perhaps a neighbour supporting their neighbour who perhaps due to disability, frailty and older age need some support.
So how does this affect people?
It can be life changing. A caring role can happen in an instant or be a gradual progression. For example caring for a person after an accident or stroke has different initial requirements compared to looking after someone with dementia or frailty due to age.
Do carers have to live with the person they care for?
No, not at all. They may even live in a different city or a different country. They might live miles away and that can bring different challenges.
So does everyone realise they are in a caring role and can get help?
Absolutely not. It can take a while for someone to realise that they have a carering role. Research suggests half of all carers, around 51%, took over a year to recognise their caring role and over a third, around 36%, took over three years to recognize themselves as a carer.
What barriers might there be to somebody identifying as care?
Sadly there are many. As I mentioned sometimes the term itself is a barrier. It is thought of only as for professionals or people who don’t want to be labelled in this way.
They might feel their relationship is diminished by the term. We so often hear, I’m their partner, their wife, their husband, not their carer. Some might be cultural or religious. The person providing the care might feel that it’s just the normal or right thing for them to do.
They have a sense of duty to provide the care. There may be an expectation. In some cultures, there can even be feelings of shame that care is having to be provided or needed. It might be the case that caring has evolved out of normal life, such as people living together who naturally help each other but maybe frailty has led to more reliance on one person.
Are there any barriers in accessing support?
Yes, many carers are unaware there is any support. There are also people who just don’t want to be a burden or have people interfering in their lives. Some carer are worried they will be judged, perhaps seen as not coping.
They might not be coping, but we don’t want people to see that side of us. There may be fear that the person they are caring for will be taken away into a home. That can be a fear particularly for young or elderly carers. It can be a perception they have. It might be that the carer would like some support but the person they’re caring for doesn’t want anyone involved.
Time to register can be problem too and especially where the Carer may have work as well.
Are there any other barriers?
Again, yes. Some people might think they have to be receiving Carer’s Allowance to be identified as a carer.
For working carers there can be fear that they will miss out on a promotion or other opportunities if they reveal to their employer that have a caring role. Lastly, getting information and registering as a carer might be quite difficult, even scary if you don’t have the internet access or know how to use it, maybe the information is not presented to you in a way that you can access, or understand it or English isn’t your first language.
It can also be time-consuming, and many carers don’t get a lot of or any spare time.
So carer’s roles are not all the same?
Exactly. Carers’ experiences are unique even though there might be similarities.
What one may be able to manage, another may find incredibly challenging. There are many carer caring for more than one person. There were many cares juggling work with care. Some carers might have family and friends around some carers have no one.
So what might a caring role actually look like?
Each situation is unique. Caring roles can be 24 -7 or just a few hours a week, but there are so many things many carers will do. Things like they might be providing practical help with things like washing, cleaning, cooking, shopping etc.
They might assist the person to take medication or provide personal care, such as helping them to visit the bathroom, wash, shower etc. The help provided might be about financial matters or it could be giving the person emotional support.
They might be arranging and taking the person they care for to appointments, assisting with communication, keeping someone safe. The key is that without that support the person would not be able to cope.
What about the impact on carers?
For some carers it can be draining, physically and emotionally. Carers may also be managing their own health conditions, or perhaps not managing them as they perhaps should be due to the caring situation.
Carers may become vulnerable as caring can be stressful and lead to a risk of illness. Some other ways they can be impacted include being isolated, not seeing anyone, losing contact with people like friends and family.
A huge number of carers suffer a negative financial impact. Almost certainly they have less personal freedom because of the support they provide. Not having a social life, perhaps not moving forward in their job, or having to reduce their hours or give up their job. Carers lives are often on hold.
