The ‘Personal Social Services Survey of Adult Carers in England: 2016/17’ was published this week. Analysing questionnaire replies from over 55,000 carers, the report highlights many interesting stats about carers.
- The majority of carers are caring for a person aged over 75
- 90% of carers aged over 85 are caring for a person aged over 75
- 77% of carers are caring for someone who lives with them
- 53% of carers are caring for a person with a physical disability, and 35% caring for a person with dementia.
Much of the data indicates the particularly difficult issues faced by older carers – eg carers aged 85+ are most likely to be caring for a person with dementia and the person with care needs will have physical disabilities as well. Our experience at Carers Leeds also demonstrates the particularly difficult caring roles faced by older carers, particularly when they are looking after another person with dementia.
The results also focus on the impact of caring on health and wellbeing:
- 76% of carers reported feeling tired
- 64% of disturbed sleep
- 60% reported a general feeling of stress
- 43% reported feeling depressed
- 33% reported on the physical strain of caring
The report provides more detailed stats on caring but there were some things that really stood out:
- 59% of carers said they spent 35 hours a week caring and
- 36% provide care for over 100 hours a week – it’s no surprise that caring impacts on people’s health and wellbeing.
Caring also impacts on the carer’s ability to socialise and almost 30% of respondents said that they don’t have enough social contact, with 16% reporting that they have little social contact and feel socially isolated.
It’s always useful to keep up to date with some of the facts and figures about caring – these all confirm our experience at Carers Leeds, putting hard evidence to some of the issues faced by an aging society.
This report is produced every 2 years by the Adult Social Carer Statistics Team, NHS Digital.
Helena Bladon, Development Manager
totally agree with the findings. Its the rest of the service, the back up thats crap.. and when a family is available getting some sort of help is even worse..as they leave you to get on with it.
Both my parents have dementia and its got worse since my dad got dementia..cuts…cuts., and the people that are supposed to be in the know have no idea..!!
Some interesting and worrying statistics, which are only likely to get worse with the aging population. More needs to be done to help unpaid carers, especially those who also have a full time or part time job. Employers need to be more understanding in recognising how hard it can be for workers trying to fit their caring duties around their work by offering flexible working hours.