practical living
exists for them around the world and what
supports they can access. Caring is often seen as a labour of love
and not necessarily an officially defined
role, right?
What does it aim to achieve? Absolutely. There’s no doubt that the vast
majority of carers are family members.
That’s why we hear all the time, “But this
is normal. I’m the parent, so of course
I’d care for them,” or, “He’s my father. Of
course I’d care for him.”
That’s all well and good, but we’re trying
to raise the spotlight that, yes, this is a role
you’re providing in addition to your being
a caring relative, and there’s support out
there and a network you can tap into to
help you in your caring role.
There’s also been quite a lot of research
done to show that carers don’t look after
themselves. They feel guilty if they spend
time away from the person they’re caring
for to look after their own physical or
mental wellbeing. As a consequence,
depression is a very high comorbidity of
carers, because they do feel isolated, and
they do feel guilty if they spend time away
from the people they’re looking after.
This year we’ve launched a few things.
First of all, we’ve done a Global State
of Care report, looking at the state of
initiatives in various countries around the
world – and Australia, of course, is one
of them. In it we’ve looked at basically
what kind of legislation exists, and what
workplace arrangements are in place.
Is there respite care? Are there financial
services available for carers? And we’ve
put that all together in a report.
Coupled with that report, we launched
a social media campaign, which is mostly
Facebook oriented. It’s about identifying
some carer stories, and these will allow
other carers, when they go onto the
Facebook page, to see these stories and
then maybe recognise, “Hey, this sounds
familiar. I think that might be me. I do
something like that. Am I a carer?”
Consequently we have a simple
five-point questionnaire to help people
identify whether they are more than just a
caring relative and are in fact a carer. And
as a consequence of being identified as a
carer, they can then go to these websites
to see what support exists for them.
You mentioned that there can be some
confusion about who should identify as a
carer. What is the definition of a carer?
In Australia, it is defined by the Australian
Bureau of Statistics. Basically, it’s unpaid
support for anyone who is a friend or a
family member with a chronic condition,
terminal illness, drug or alcohol
dependency, or mental health issues. The
key point is unpaid care for those people.
THE C
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How many carers are there in Australia?
Australia has quite a large proportion. It’s
about 11 per cent of the total population.
That’s roughly 2.7 million carers. And those
carers provide about $60 billion of unpaid
labour to the Australian economy. That’s
about 1.9 billion hours per year. It’s a lot.
What services and support are available
for those carers?
The government launched a terrific
website about two years ago called
carergateway.gov.au. It’s a one‑stop shop.
Everything a carer would want to know
is there, such as what financial services
are available, what respite services are
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available, and what the legislation allows
and doesn’t allow. I would recommend
your audience to go to that website and
find all that detail.
Why is it particularly hard for rural and
regional carers?
About 80 per cent of Australia’s
population live in urban centres, but about
40–50 per cent of carers are based in
Carers provide about
$60 billion of unpaid labour
to the Australian economy.
That’s about 1.9 billion
hours per year.
rural, regional and remote areas. Now, we
all know that out in the rural communities,
access to services and resourcing is a
real challenge. And we know that in
Queensland and NSW in particular, the
drought is creating a financial burden
among these people. Coupled with the
fact that carers tend to have mental
health issues as well, we thought it was
important that we focus on rural and
regional areas, to bring to their attention
that they are not alone, that there are
services available.
In our social media, we do have some
examples of Australian rural carers
talking about their stories, so people can
understand, when they’re out in these
isolated areas, that they aren’t alone, that
there is help. We can provide access to
those services for you, so you can feel that
you have a support network for yourself,
not just the patient you’re looking after. ■
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