What is a carer and what do they do?
A carer is someone who provides unpaid care, often alongside work or education, for someone who otherwise couldn’t manage without their help for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to age, illness, disability, addiction or poor mental health.
Each caring situation is unique and is influenced by various factors, for example:
- Provide personal care and nursing duties such as giving medication, changing dressings
- Provide emotional support, especially if the person they care for has mental health needs or dementia
- Perform domestic tasks such as cleaning, shopping, cooking, washing, ironing
- Care for multiple people
- Balance caring with education or employment
- Manage appointments, finance and transport
- Deal with emergencies
- Keep the person they care for safe
Carers will have many, if not all of the above responsibilities, often leaving little or no time to take care of themselves. Caring for a loved one is often an immensely rewarding and challenging role and we have developed this partnership strategy to help provide more support to carers in Bolton.