The Princess Royal Trust for Carers
Carers who are caring for people with mental health difficulties
and dementia are more likely to say their own health is not very
good or not at all good and have higher incidence of health and
emotional problems, a survey released today by The Princess Royal
Trust for Carers has found.
The results of the survey of more than 1,000 carers, sponsored
by GlaxoSmithKline and undertaken by Q2 Research, were released
today as part of the launch of Partners in Care, a joint campaign
between The Princess Royal Trust for Carers and The Royal College
of Psychiatrists.
“The results of this survey show that people caring for
someone with a mental illness suffer from high levels of anxiety
and stress and yet their main concern is would happen if they died
or became too ill to look after the person they cared for,” Alison
Ryan Chief Executive of The Princess Royal Trust for Carers
said.
“The Partners in Care campaign is important because it aims to
raise awareness about the issues carers face and encourage
partnerships between carers, patients and professionals so that
hopefully it will alleviate some of the burden for carers.”
Key findings of the survey are that people who care for
someone with a learning disability or a mental health problem,
including dementia:
- care for longer (an average of 15.2 for those who care for
someone with a learning disability and 10.5 years for those caring
for someone with mental illness)
- care for more hours per week (83% of carers looking after
someone with a learning disability care for more than 50 hours a
week)
- feel they do not know enough about the illness of person they
are caring for
- feel they do not know how to react in certain situations or how
to deal with a mentally ill person
- worry about the person they care for harming themselves or
committing suicide.
Getting up in the night was one of the main tasks that caused
ill health for people caring for someone with dementia (40%) or a
mental illness (39%). Also affecting carers’ health was coping with
inconsistent or challenging behaviour (47% of those caring for
someone with a mental illness; 36% of those caring for someone with
dementia; 33% of those caring for someone with a learning
disability) and dealing with verbal and mental abuse (41% of people
caring for someone with mental illness).
For further information, please contact Liz Fox or Deborah
Hart in the Communications Department.
Telephone: 020 7235 2351 Extensions. 6298 or 6127
Note to editors:
There are more than 5 million carers in England and Wales, more than a million of whom care for more than 50 hours a week – more than a full-time job.
The number of carers with heavy caring commitments is over one million, a figure similar to the number of those employed by the NHS.
A carer is someone who, without payment, provides help and support to a friend, neighbour or relative who could not manage otherwise because of frailty, illness or disability. They may be juggling paid work with their unpaid caring responsibilities at home.
The Princess Royal Trust for Carers is the largest provider of comprehensive carers support services in the UK. Through its unique network of independently managed Carers Centres and an interactive website www.carers.org the Trust currently provides quality information, advice and support services to over 150,000 carers.
GlaxoSmithKline - one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies - is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer. The company has a continuing programme of charitable activities in the UK, supporting projects in healthcare, scientific education and medical research, the environment and the arts. For further information about GSK's community programmes please visit www.gsk.com/community