Carers ‘need to look after themselves too’

Healthcare News
14/09/2011
One expert has warned that the deteriorating health of a carer could negatively impact on the individual they are looking after.

Family carers who look after their relatives so they do not have to find a care home should remember to take care of themselves, according to one author.

Rosie Staal, author of What Shall We Do With Mother? How to Manage When Your Elderly Parent is Dependent On You, said that if a carer is in bad health, this can have a negative impact on the individual they are looking after.

“To this end, I would recommend that sometimes carers should be a little bit selfish, for once giving priority to themselves and their own needs. Constantly being at the bottom of the pecking order is not good for the body – or the soul,” she noted.

The writer also emphasised that carers are often “invisible” despite the fact that their work is difficult, relentless and “often thankless”.

According to research carried out by The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, more than one in eight people over the age of 60 are working as carers.

Seventy per cent of these individuals believe that caring for someone had a negative impact on their physical health.

http://www.barchester.com/Healthcare-News/Carers-‘need-to-look-after-themselves-too’/376/4776