According to the 2008 National Carers Strategy, 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 has a mental health or substance misuse problems”
You don’t have to live with the person you look after, and you may be juggling those responsibilities with others such as work or your own family. The amount of care that different carers give varies enormously. You may call in on a neighbour every couple of days to make sure everything is ok and do some simple chores that they can’t manage themselves or you may be providing complete physical and emotional care for someone who lives with you and is completely unable to help him or herself.
At some time in their lives, three in five people will become a carer and take responsibility for looking after someone else who needs help. It could be a member of the family who is getting older or who has a disability, or it may be a friend who needs a look in every now and then. Being a carer may put extra strain on to you, especially as you have to carry on with your own life as well.
You may feel that you have to become a carer, or you may do it because you want to, or you may do it for a combination of reasons. Whatever it is that makes you a carer, you are entitled to the right to be respected as such and help and support.