Most carers are not professional care employees. They are people who care for others, unpaid, such as friends and family caring for someone who could be a relative or friend, who due to disability, disease or addiction is not able to look after themselves without help.
Anyone can end up caring for others – a teenage girl caring for a parent with alcohol problems, a middle-aged man caring for his wife, who has terminal cancer, or a woman of 80 years caring for her husband who has Alzheimer’s disease.
How caring affects your life
Although for many caregivers, care can have positive and beneficial aspects, there are many reasons why this can also mean you need extra support. Support can be found with Live in Care Cornwall. Find out more at a site like Liveincare, providers of Live in Care Cornwall
Money and benefits
Offering care round-the-clock can lead to financial problems if someone must leave their job to manage care. Aids and equipment needed to provide care assistance can add up, especially when there isn’t much money to go around.
Being a caregiver can often feel like a never-ending battle for access to aid for you and the person you care for, such as getting the right diagnosis, the right support for your family, adaptations to the home, and the benefits and assistance from other financial institutions.
Health and welfare
Being a caregiver is exhausting. You may wake up several times at night and also care throughout the day. You may be involved in lifting and moving people who are heavy. You may need to look after other family members as well as go to work.
It can leave people feeling really tired, and angry when seeing someone you care about suffering. Problems like anxiety, low mood and other mental wellbeing issues are common amongst caregivers.