Who are Carers?

Carers are people who look after someone, be it a relative, friend or neighbour, and come from all walks of life. Carers can be male or female, old or young, employed or unemployed. The level of care provided could range from buying some shopping for a friend, to supporting an individual 24 hours a day. Some people do not like to “categorise” themselves as carers, but merely carrying out the duty of a friend, relative   or neighbour. At the Carers Centre, we are not interested in categorising people, but supporting carers to make their lives just that little bit easier.

There are over six million carers in the UK. That is around one in seven of the adult population. Every year two million people stop caring and these are replaced by two million new carers. At the other extreme 2.7 million people have been caring for five years or more.

Two thirds of the total number of carers are of working age (4 million between the age of 18 and 65). 57% of carers are women and 43% are male.

In Portsmouth there are at least 15 000 carers. Almost 2000 of these are recieving services from the Carers Centre, but many more are managing their caring with only minimal support. If this is you, or you know one of these “hidden” carers, you can register with the Carers Centre here and start to recieve information and support in your caring role.

Carers play a vital role in our society, saving the NHS and social care system an estimate £87 billion every year. Yet for too many their reward is poor health, financial exclusion and social isolation.  Many more carers are in poor health compared to the rest of the of the population whilst on average carers income drops by £8000 per year. To find out how the carers centre can help follow the links to the side of this page