Time and time again, we hear from research that caring takes a massive toll on the physical and mental health of Carers. Carers Week research found that 6 out of 10 people (61%) said their physical health has worsened as a result of caring, while 7 out of 10 (72%) said they have experienced mental ill health.
There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, many carers are older people themselves, meaning they are more likely to have some health conditions of their own, and caring can be hard work physically and mentally which can exacerbate that. Often caring can have an impact on your finances, meaning you might not be able to do some of the activities you used to which helped you stay well, or you may not be able to afford to buy the kinds of food that would be the healthiest for you.
Crucially, it can leave you with no time to be able to book and go to health appointments of your own. Often Carers are often so busy looking after someone else and making sure they get to their appointments that they put their own health needs on the back burner. So instead of making sure they get to the GP when they’ve got a niggling pain or lump, or have been feeling really down, they might deprioritise it meaning that by the time they get it seen to, it’s possible that it has got a lot worse. We’ve even heard of Carers having to put off having much needed operations because there simply wasn’t anyone they trusted to look after the person they care for.
In Kent we have a service which provides replacement care for people in this situation, funded jointly by Kent County Council and the Integrated Care Board. The amount of money it costs is comparatively small, but the impact is huge for those who need to use this service. It makes the difference between getting to a doctor and staying well, and potentially breaking down physically or mentally.
As with many other Carers’ support services, the funding for this service is under review, and we hope to see a commitment to continuing to fund it. To stop or reduce this service, in a climate where health promotion and prevention of ill-health are the watchwords, would make no sense whatsoever.
Kent Carers need to be able to look after their own health to stay well enough to continue to care. Let’s make sure we provide what’s needed to enable them to do this.