Home Care easing burden on ageing carers

As National Carers Week comes to a close, support for older carers looking after their partners shouldn’t be overlooked.

With over 530,000 carers aged of 65¹, older carers are a growing trend.

Carinity Home Care Regional Manager Robyn Jones said it was a common situation for one partner to be caring for the other while ignoring their own health needs.

“Home Care packages often provide respite to the carers despite it not being the main reason for the service,” she said.

“It also can be a gateway into accessing other services.”

“We had a situation where the daughter of a client contacted us after we had been working in her parents’ home. Her father was the primary carer for her mother who had dementia and was having trouble coping in his caring role.”

“He was insistent that residential age care was not the answer so we were able to put them in contact with a day respite centre that focused on dementia care.”

There are over 83,400 people in Australia accessing home care a year² with services ranging from cleaning and home assistance to social access.

“Home Care has been given new freedoms to allow people to use their packages as they need them which empowers our carers to go above and beyond what is seen as a traditional paid carer role.”

For more information about Home Care go to www.carinity.org.au/In-home-care or www.myagedcare.gov.au

http://www.carersaustralia.com.au/about-carers/statistics/

http://www.aihw.gov.au/aged-care/

For media enquiries, please contact:

Emma Sugget, Communications Officer, Carinity

Ph: (07) 3550 3769 / 0409 865 930

Email: emma.sugget@carinity.org.au