Carer Support: The Guardian Angels for the Elderly

Who are Carers?

Carers are those people who take responsibility of looking after a friend or family that suffer from an illness or a mental disability that requires assistance in carrying out their daily activities. Some of the disabilities and the responsibilities that carers might face are the following–

Serious physical illness

Dementia

Addiction

Long-term physical disability

Long-term neurological conditions

Mental health problems

Learning difficulties

Some of the basic responsibilities that each carer would have to face are the following –

Household chores – They would be responsible for the complete household work and outside chores such as getting the groceries and paying off the bills.

Personal care – Taking complete care of the relative/friend from bathing them to taking care of their emotional and physical needs such as feeding them and offering them friendship comes in personal care.

However, it needs to be kept in mind that all of the services that the carer offers is unpaid and is voluntary in nature. Although each carer has his or her own personal experience about how to deal with their family members or their friends, they all share a basic need that needs to be addressed. This is where the concept of carer support needs to come in.

Why need a carer support?

While taking care of others, one often forgets to take care of themselves, especially when you are professionally carer. Some of the major obstacles that a carer faces may be the following

1. Become prone to depression due to the isolation from the society.
2. Many carers have to leave their respective jobs in order to take care of the elderly 24/7. It might reach an unsatisfying peak.
3. Even if some may manage to keep their jobs, it is very hard to balance the two and this may cause extreme stress.

Therefore, it is understood that there are many sacrifices, which are to be made on the part of being a carer. The decision to be a carer needs to be a well thought out process/decision. To take care of all of these obstacles, carer support groups are formed that help each other through tough situations and give advice to each other and in fact enhance each other’s performance to take care of their relatives/friends. Moreover, these groups allow for exchange programs that help the regular carer to take a small break while another carer would step in to help the elderly.

Carers can be of any age and do not require any special requirements apart from the fact that the elderly in concern is comfortable with the caregiver. That is of the utmost importance. This might be the prime reason that many caregivers are of young age that takes care of their grandparents or older parents.