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Carers Fact Sheets - Introduction

Introduction to Carers Fact Sheets

These Fact Sheets are provided by Carers Together. They include information from a number of sources gathered together to help you, as a carer, find your way through the mass of paperwork, support and information available to you.

They are not a total guide to everything to do with caring and do not contain all the answers to the individual needs of any carer. It is impossible to issue a comprehensive all-encompassing guide to meet the needs of all individual carers because no carer is the same as another. The way anyone cares depends on a range of factors including the person, their personality, the support they get, the family they have, the friends who understand, the professionals linked to them, their GP network, the hospital nearest to them, the person they care for and their disability and a range of other influences in their lives.

What these Fact Sheets do is to touch upon the range of issues that may occur when you are caring for someone else and point you towards the information, support, advice, advocacy, individuals and groups that may be able to help and support you.

At any given time, three in five people are taking responsibility voluntarily for looking after, supporting or assisting someone else who needs help because of a long-term illness or disability. It could be a family member, who is getting old, or who has a disability; it may be a friend who needs a helping hand; it could be a young person looking after a sibling or parent. Most people will at some time take responsibility for looking after someone else who needs help, so remember you are not alone and this guide may help you.

Undertaking to ‘care’ for another person is not easy and is very often the cause of stress in the carer. Your life changes as you are unable to choose freely what you will do and when, as you will be taking the needs of someone else into consideration as well. There is right to choose not to care. Looking after someone is not always easy or satisfying and caring can be physically, emotionally and financially draining. It is every person’s right to decide they cannot take on the role or need to give it up. Although emotionally difficult, carers must make the decision that is best for them and the person they are expected to care for. Struggling on can often lead to the carer’s own health being badly affected and that does not help anyone.

The differences between all carers and their needs means that service provision must be varied and flexible and ever evolving to help and support them. It is not sufficient to expect carers or the people they care for to fit into a small number of services, which, though often excellent, do not give them what they need. The number of carers needs is as different as the number of people caring and it is therefore essential that carers are able to access a wide range of facilities and services for their support.

The Fact Sheets Pack gives a general picture of some of the concerns that may arise and tries to point to some of the sources of help and support available. There is no single right or wrong answer to any situation. It is essential that each carer looks at his/her own individual needs and finds the solution that is best for him/her.

The Fact Sheets will look different in three months, six months or a year as they change in the light of new information, new support, change in policy and legal framework.

They are available from Carers Together and can be downloaded from the link below

The Fact Sheets

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