Who are carers?

There are 2.6 million unpaid family carers in Australia. They provide help and support for a family member, reative or friend with a disability, mental illness or disorder, terminal illness, chronic condition or who are frail aged.

Carers are young, of working age, older, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, they live in major cities and regional, rural and remote areas, and may have been born outside Australia.

Carers come from all walks of Australian society and can come into their caring journey at any stage throughout their life.

Anyone, anytime across Australia can become a carer.

Facts and figures

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has identified (ABS 2004):

• 2.6 million carers in Australia
• approximately 500,000 are primary carers
• 71% of primary carers are women
• 78% of primary carers care for a person living in the same household
• 26% of primary carers care for a child
• 42% of primary carers care for a partner
• 23% of primary carers care for a parent
  
  
• 380,000 are under the age of 26
  
  - with 170,000 carers under the age of 18 

                     - one third to one half of all young carers live in regional and rural Australia

• 933,000 carers live outside major cities
• 454,000 carers are over the age of 65 
• 31,600 Indigenous carers over the age of 15 (ABS 2008)
• 620,000 carers were born outside Australia (ABS 2003)

Many carers are termed ‘sandwich carers’ or ‘the sandwich generation’ because they care for more than one person- a frail parent, a partner or a child with a disability or chronic condition.

Supporting the health and community care sector

The caring role is one of immense social and economic value. Carers are the foundation of our health and community care system.

 As health care increasing moves away from ‘institutional’ settings into the home and community, family carers shoulder greater responsibility for managing complex conditions and providing the emotional and physical support for the person for whom they are caring. 

Carers in Australia contribute an estimated 1.2 billion hours of care annually. This is the equivalent of $30.5 billion of formal aged and disability care services in Australia and the productivity loss of this care is approximately $4.9 billion.  (Access Economics 2005)

No future health or community care system will be able to respond to changing demographics and health needs, clinical practices and societal influences in the long term without carers.

However, the worth and value of caring extends way beyond the fact of it being cost effective to government and the community.  

“It cannot be overemphasized that the care provided is often the difference between life and death” (Carer Payment Child Review Taskforce 2008).

What do carers do?

Each care situation is unique. Some carers need to assist with tasks of daily living and spend their days feeding, bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring or administering medications. Others care for people who are fairly independent but need supervision or help with their finances and transport.

Emotional support is also an important element of caring.

Most carers take on caring because a family member or friend needs support and assistance.

This can begin at the birth of a child with disabilities, it can happen suddenly as the result of an accident or can develop over a number of years as a condition progresses.

It has been found that on average, carers spend 40 hours a week providing care (ABS 2004). For carers of someone with a mental illness the average time spent providing care is around 104 hours per week (CA & MHCA 2000) 

Carers in the workforce

Nearly 2 million carers are of workforce age, but many have had to leave the workforce, reduce the hours they work, or work below their skill capacity because of their caring responsibility.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) data indicates that carers of prime working ages 25–54, approximately 47 per cent of male primary carers were employed full-time compared with 80 per cent of men who were not primary carers. 18 per cent of female primary carers aged 25–54 years were in full-time paid employment compared with 39 per cent per cent of women who were not primary carers. (AIHW 2004)

2007 research by the Taskforce on Care Costs (TOCC) found that nearly half (44%) of working carers had selected a role at work below their skill level because it provided the flexibility they needed to balance their work and caring responsibilities. (TOCC 2007)

Losing carers from paid employment, limiting their ability to work and working below skill level are losses for the carer, their families, their employer and the economy.

Impacts of caring

Carers have been found to have the lowest health and wellbeing of any group yet discovered. A survey of carers’ health and wellbeing in 2007 found

1. more than a third of carers were found to be severely to extremely severely depressed
2. more than one third were found to be experiencing severe or extreme stress
3. carers are almost twice as likely than normal to experience chronic pain
4. caring could be one of the leading causes of depression in Australia
5. not receiving treatment for a significant medical or psychological condition is extremely damaging to carers wellbeing
6. the major reason carers are not receiving treatment for themselves is that they have no time or they cannot afford the treatment
7. caring does not get easier with time and wellbeing level appear to stabilise after two years in a caring role
8. caring compounds the effect of any other factor that leads to reduced wellbeing
9. it is evident that any level of consistent, daily, immediate caring responsibility is sufficient to severely damage wellbeing
10. wellbeing decreases as the number of hours spent caring increases
11. the presence of a person in the household who requires care severely compromises the wellbeing of other family members, whether they have primary care responsibilities or not

Without appropriate support, caring can have an adverse impact of physical, mental and emotional health as well as short and long term financial security.

The demands of caring can make it harder to have a job, go to school or to simply take some time out to relax. Particularly, for young carers the impact of caring can make it difficult for them to attend school or make the transition to employment.

• 60% of young primary carers aged 15-25 are unemployed or not in the labour force, compared with 38% for the general population in the same group
• only 4% of young primary carers aged 15-25 are still at school, compared with 23% of the general population in the same age group (ABS unpublished data)

It is important to remember that whatever affects carers also affects the whole family.

Finding help and support

Caring can be rewarding and provide opportunity for personal growth and the development of new skills. Caring may also cause frustration and distress and severely impact on family relationships. 

Carers Australia is the peak national body representing the diversity of Australians who are family carers.

Together with our carers associations in each state and territory we work to improve the lives of carers and have caring accepted as a shared community responsibility.

State and territory carers associations help and assist carers with flexible services designed to support them in their caring role. These services include counselling, advocacy, respite and education and training for carers.

Carers Associations can also help put you in contact with other people who have similar experiences to your own and who understand what you are going through.

For information and support, contact your state or territory carers association’s Carer Advisory and Counselling Service on 1800 242 636.

Commonwealth Respite and Carelink Centres

Commonwealth Respite and Carelink Centres are information centres for older people, people with disabilities and those who provide care and services. Centres provide free and confidential information on community aged care, disability and other support services available locally, interstate or anywhere within Australia.

Each Commonwealth Respite and Carelink Centre has extensive regional networks and maintains a comprehensive database containing community aged care, disability and other support services.

Respite Services

The National Respite for Carers Program supports carers of older people and those with disabilities to take time out from their caring role. The program provides the comfort of knowing that your dependents are being well looked after.

For more information call your nearest  Centre on 1800 052 222*

Centrelink

Centrelink provides financial assistance and services to carers in the community.  If you are a carer you may be eligible for Centrelink support. For more information about income support available through Centrelink, go to the Support section of this website Centrelink Social Worker’s can provide confidential assistance such as counselling and support in difficult times.  They also provide referral to other services and programs in the community.  To make an appointment with a Social Worker, call 13 10 21 or contact your local Centrelink Customer Service Centre.   

To find out about payments and services you may be eligible for, contact Centrelink on
13 27 17    

A list of websites with more information for carers is available from our Links page.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2004). Summary of Findings: 2003 ABS Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, Canberra.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008). Summary of Findings: 2006 ABS Census of Population and Housing, the Health and Welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, 2008.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2003) Migrants, Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia, 2003 Cat No 34150DS004, Canberra November 2007

Access Economics (2005). The Economic Value of Informal Care, prepared for Carers Australia, Canberra.

Mental Health Council of Australia and Carers Australia 2000: Carers of people with mental illness project report, Canberra

Australian Institute of Health and Welfaire (2004): Carers in Australia: Assisting

Deakin University and Carers Australia (2007) Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, Survey 17.1 Report 17.1, October 2007, Melbourne

Taskforce on Care Costs (2007): TOCC Report: The hidden face of care, Sydney 2007

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2004): Carers in Australia: Assisting frail older people and people with a disability