If you care for a friend or family member who needs additional support because of disability, age, illness, mental health conditions or addiction but you don’t get paid for it, then you’re what is known as an unpaid carer, whether you provide help for a few hours a week or if you do so full time.
Sometimes, carers live with or near the person they’re looking after, while others are able to fulfil their responsibilities despite being further away.
Support can include anything from helping someone with personal care (such as washing and getting dressed) to doing the housework, food shopping, picking up medication, providing company and emotional support, or taking your loved ones to medical appointments.
Interestingly, however, it seems that there are many people providing this level of care who don’t identify as unpaid carers, with charity Carers UK explaining that this lack of realisation is one of the biggest hurdles that people face when it comes to accessing available support themselves.
Speaking to the BBC last year, chief executive Helen Walker said that it takes two years on average for people to realise that they’ve become a carer.
She added: “It’s very difficult to get support, but even more so if you don’t recognise yourself as a carer in the first place.”
How to identify if you’re an unpaid carer
If you’re providing a certain level of care, it can be easy to forget to check in with yourself and how you’re feeling. You just typically accept the new order of things and get on with it, accepting this new reality without really questioning it.
However, this can be to your detriment and it’s essential that you prioritise yourself to ensure that your own mental and emotional health and wellbeing doesn’t suffer. If you don’t do this, you may well burn out and, consequently, you won’t be able to support your loved one to the best of your ability.
Ask yourself:
– Am I feeling drained, mentally or physically?
– Do I have the time to look after myself and focus on my own self-care?
– Am I on the phone to a loved one a lot and providing lots of emotional support?
– Am I often late or absent from my official job?
– Do I feel disengaged at work?
– Do I have time for social activities or am I cancelling plans with friends more frequently?
– Am I able to keep on top of my own everyday tasks like housework and food shopping?
If you find yourself in situations such as these, it’s likely that you’re an unpaid carer, in which case it’s worth investigating the various avenues of support available to you.
If you’d like to find out more about support, respite care and other issues affecting carers, get in touch with the Concept Care team today.
