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Are You a Carer?

'A carer is someone who spends a significant proportion of their life providing unpaid support to family or potentially friends. This could be caring for a relative, partner or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or who has mental health or substance misuse problems'

It may be your partner cannot manage by themselves because of an illness, your son or daughter who has a learning disability or older parents who are now frail and need your help.

Being a carer can be very demanding and there may be many circumstances which can lead you to call on outside help. You may be exhausted and find certain caring tasks difficult, you may be in poor health, you might find it difficult finding time for other members of the family or friends, you may have had give up work or reduce your hours of work to care for someone in need. This will affect you financially in terms of lost earnings, the subsequent impact on savings and pensions, as well as the loss of skills in practice, and the disadvantage faced in trying to return to work when your caring role ends.

There are, however, a wide range of organisations that can provide help for carers in a number of ways such as:

providing information and advice
running carers support groups
helping carers maintain their own health
having someone to listen
providing help at home
helping carers to take a break

To find out about these services and to get help with any questions, issues or problems, please go to Carers Support and Services or get in touch with us or another support group using the Carers Contact Details.

We recognises that one of the major concerns of carers is the well being of the person that you look after and therefore information useful for cared-for people can be found by going to Health and Social Care.

If you think you might benefit from any service provided by Social Services and you would like us to contact you by phone or email, please click the following link and complete the Social Services Contact Us/Self Referral Online Form and someone will be in touch with you as soon as possible.