Unpaid Carers

What is a carer?

Across Wales there are thousands of people who are unpaid carers. An unpaid carer is a person of any age, who provides or intends to provide care and support for an adult, or disabled child. This could be caring for a friend, family member or neighbour who due to illness, disability, a long-term condition, a mental health problem or an addiction, cannot cope without support. This could be full-time or for just a few hours a week.

If you are receiving a carers allowance, you are still an unpaid carer.

While caring for someone can be extremely rewarding it can take its toll on your physical and mental wellbeing and prioritising someone else’s needs could also result in neglecting your own.

You might feel stretched to the limit, juggling work, caring and family life or struggling to make ends meet. You may feel lonely and isolated, and unsure of where to turn to for help.

Taking care of yourself and reaching out for support will help you to enjoy your life and continue caring for a loved one.  We hope the resources below will be helpful.

Self-help advice for unpaid carers

• Looking after your own physical and mental wellbeing is important. There are simple things we can all do to help look after our mental health. Visit our ‘looking after yourself’ section for more information and advice.
• Try to set aside time for yourself every day. You could use this time to do something you enjoy. This may be going for a coffee or walk with a friend, time in the garden or an exercise class. Visit our “Five Ways to Wellbeing” section for more tips.
• Learn new skills to help you manage any difficult feelings you may have, such as stress, anxiety, low mood. See our self-help courses below.
• Register as a Carer with your GP. This will help your surgery understand your caring responsibilities, signpost you to information, help and support, they may provide more flexible appointments that reflect your caring role as well as offering you an annual flu jab (free).
• If you are under the age of 18 and you help to look after someone, a Young Carers ID Card can be helpful to identify you as a carer so that you can get the information, support and advice you need and in some areas allow you to go swimming and use the gym.
• Finding time now to sort out your legal and financial affairs, and those of the person you care for, can make financial and legal issues a lot easier to manage in the future.
• Contact your local social services to request a Carers Assessment. This is not to assess your ability to care, but to find out what could support you in your caring role. This is also available to young carers. They can also advise on whether you are entitled to Carers Allowance and support you in planning for an Emergency.
• You are not alone in your caring role, even though Carers say it can sometimes feel that way. It may be helpful to get involved in activities going on in your local community, including support groups for Carers. Find out what’s going on in your area by visiting our ‘in your area’ page
• Talk to family and friends about how you are feeling, they may be able to help you with your caring responsibilities.
• For financial advice and support. Caring for someone can have a huge impact on finances, if you are struggling to manage have a look at our “money worries” page and see the other helpful resources below including information on Care Collective that manage small grants.
• Please have a look at other helpful resources and organisations below, including information on financial advice and support.
• If you or someone you know needs urgent help – go to our ‘urgent help’ page immediately.

Helplines providing information and advice to help for unpaid carers:

If the information, advice, resources and courses on this page have not answered your questions and/or you think you need more help, there are many free services available.

For support with your caring role contact the Care Collective or Carers Wales. See details in our self-help resources below.

For support with your mental wellbeing, you can make an appointment with your Psychological Health Practitioner (PHP) or GP.  PHPs are NHS mental health practitioners who provide a free service for people experiencing mild to moderate mental health problems.

If you are under 18 or worried about someone aged under 18 and need urgent advice/self-referral to local mental health and wellbeing services in the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area, contact SPACE-Wellbeing.

Or alternatively contact another approved helpline. Some services are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.