Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil
How would you describe a carer?
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Who is a carer?
A carer is someone, who, without payment, provides help and support to a partner, child, relative, friend or neighbour, who could not manage without their help. This could be due to age, physical or mental illness, addiction or disability.
A
young carer is a child or young person under the age of 18 carrying out significant caring tasks and assuming a level of responsibility for another person, which would normally be taken by an adult.
Anyone can become a carer; carers come from all walks of life, all cultures and can be of any age.
Many carers do not consider themselves to be a carer, they are just looking after their mother, son, or best friend, just getting on with it and doing what anyone else would in the same situation.
Thats from the site that magpi put the link in. Its that last bit 'Many carers do not consider themselves to be a carer, they are just looking after their mother, son, or best friend just getting on with it and doing what anyone else would in the same situation.' Me, thats what i felt when i was looking after mum - she looked after me when i was a kid so why couldnt i look after her now when she needed help? The carer's allowance is a joke - i was classed as her carer and i didnt know until the social worker told me that i could claim it - so i did. I didnt get it though - i had the underlying right to it but couldnt receive it because i was getting incapacity benefit!!! I was lucky - i had my sisters and brother and my eldest niece and my next door neighbour i could run to if things got to much and i needed to escape just for 5 minutes was a break. I also had the internet to let rip on. There was times i'd arranged to go out but couldnt go because mum wasnt well or she was in one of her moods. I was also lucky because we had an understanding social worker and there was a dementia nurse from the hospital who used to come and see us and mum would listen to them - she wouldnt listen to me if i said one thing she would do another. I got a part time job to give me a break away from her - i needed the outside contact. It was on a saturday - so brother and sister could look after mum. 4 weeks into it - i'd finished work and come home and nipped over to the shop. One of the people in there told me that he'd seen my mum that afternoon trying to cross the road in front of my house - in her dressing gown!!! She'd refused to get dressed that morning and the carers that came in cant make them do anything they dont want to. I rang the dementia nurse up and she arranged then for her to go to a care home for all day saturday - picked up at 9am and then dropped off at 7pm. Then we had all the fun of trying to get the carers in early enough to give them time to get her washed and dressed and her breakfast.