Support for Carers

Who is a Carer?

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A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction.

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Anyone could be a carer – a 15-year-old girl looking after a parent with an alcohol problem, a 40-year-old man caring for his partner who has terminal cancer, or an 80-year-old woman looking after her husband who has Alzheimer's disease.

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How does caring affect your life?

Although for many carers, caring can have positive and rewarding aspects, there are lots of reasons why caring can also leave you needing support.

Caring can have an impact on many aspects of your life.

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• Caring can lead to poverty if you have to give up work to care or are managing on benefits. The aid and equipment needed to help care can add an extra drain on tight finances. 

• Carers in poverty will not be able to afford do the things that many of us take for granted, such as buying new or warm clothes, heating the house, house repairs, going on holiday or a short break, running a car or paying a bus fare.

• Becoming a carer can feel like a constant battle to access help for you and the person you care for, for example getting the right diagnosis for your child's condition, appropriate support at school for a young carer in your family, adaptations to the home, and benefits and other financial help.

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• Caring can make you physically exhausted – you might be getting up several times in the night as well as caring throughout the day. You might need to lift and support an adult who is a lot heavier than you. You might be juggling caring with looking after the rest of your family and holding down a job.

• Caring can leave you emotionally exhausted because of the strain of seeing someone you care about experiencing pain, distress or discomfort. 

• Caring can lead to stress, depression and other mental health issues.

• Caring can affect your relationship with your partner or other family members.

• If you are caring in a couple you may no longer be able to have the physical or emotional life you had together, nor enjoy shared activities or plan for a future together.

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Looking after someone can be a rewarding experience. It can also be tough, lonely and bewildering. But you’re not on your own. We are here to listen, to give you expert information and guidance, to champion your rights and support you in finding new ways to manage at home, at work, or wherever you are.