Carers Support

Unpaid Carers

A carer is anyone, a child or adult, who looks after a family member, partner or friend who needs help. This could be because of their illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction. These people would be unable to cope without the support of a carer, and the care that these people give is unpaid.

Cares are an integral part of the health care system and they make an incredible contribution to society. It is estimated the help offered by friends and family members to ill, frail or disabled relatives is equivalent to £119 billion every year.

We want to Support You

Unfortunately, the support provided by carers is often detrimental to their own health. According to statistics, carers are more than twice as likely to suffer from poor health as the rest of the population with nearly 21% of carers in poor health compared to 11% of the general public. In addition to the impact on carers physical and mental wellbeing, their education and employment potential can also be affected, leading to an overall poorer quality of life. The majority of carers link their increased heath risk and poorer quality of life to having a lack of support. For this reason, it is important to us that you make us aware of your status as a carer to enable us to offer you all the help and support that we can.

We also offer annual health checks to all carers, with the aim of reducing your health care risks and helping with any health issues we can as soon as possible.

Further Support and Guidance

Carers Trust

Citizens Advice

Age UK

Mind

NHS England