My Story as An Unpaid Carer - A Carer Profile

Carers fulfil several different roles which I'll explore in my next post. The picture on the lefthand side of the image below highlights some of the generic aspects of caring:

Apologies for the tiny writing. Hopefully you can get the gist via the images if you're not able to enlarge the slide. 

The first part of the definition for a carer is pretty self-explanatory - 'Cares for family or friends who have a disability, illness or who need support in later life.' I think it's safe to say that we'd all probably come up with something similar if asked to briefly describe what a carer does.

As I've just mentioned, I’ll go into more depth into what I actually do as a carer in my next post but the point that I really want to highlight here, is something that I've not actually seen in the definition of a carer before and that's the second part of the definition where it mentions ‘Needs support to manage a life of their own.’ 

I think you could look at this in two different ways. Clearly, the person being cared for needs the support to manage a life of their own however I’ve learned over the past 24 years that the carer needs support too. In my experience, that’s often forgotten and to be fair, the carer usually puts their needs right at the bottom of the pile and doesn't give them any regard because they consider them less important than those of the individual and other family members that they're caring for.

Depending where you live in the UK there are various support groups for carers. Sometimes the local communities set up their own groups which are either in person or online and some local authorities are mindful of carers needs and try to support them the best they can. However, in my experience, carers need to source this support themselves and it's not always easy to find. 

In my personal experience, I joined various chat forums (pre social media!) for Harrison's genetic and cardiac conditions and used them for support rather than a specific group for carers. I think the important thing is, that carers are able to engage with individuals who understand what it's like through their own lived experience. If carers have social media accounts, it's far easier nowadays to get virtual support from all over the world. This can be invaluable when a carer is looking for a quick response. However, sometimes you just need a bit of in person support too and the simple act of making a carer a cuppa shouldn't be underestimated!