Walking Along a Carer’s Path
Exhaustion is one word I didn’t say in my audio to describe the impact caring has on carers. Also, how caring can affect us not only emotionally but physically, especially those of us with our own health problems. I’m currently experiencing a flare-up of an old back injury due to the lifting of my grandson over several days. It’s easy to push our own needs aside when we are caring for others and just work through pain and discomfort.
I was interested to know the stats for unpaid carers. How many are there in the UK? How much were these people saving the economy every year? I was shocked. Here are some figures to illustrate the impact caring has:
The National Census of 2021 cited five million carers aged five and over in the UK. Yes, from age five, the plight of children in a carer’s role must be mentioned here.
Here are some figures from Carers UK.
75% of carers worry about juggling care and work commitments.
30% report their mental health was bad or very bad.
63% of carers were worrying about managing monthly costs.
The cost of unpaid care in relation to saving the economy money in England and Wales alone is a staggering 162 billion pounds a year. This figure almost matches the funding of the entire NHS for 2020/21.
How many of us define ourselves as carers, or where our labour has gone towards a caring role? What if we sat down and thought about all the direct and indirect care we give in our time towards others? I think many of you would be surprised. I asked myself this question during the last seven days and these are my examples:
I have helped care for a grandson for three days. One of these started at 07.30 and finished at 22.30.
I drove an elderly friend to the hairdressers which took up a morning.
The visit to my 94-year-old father in a residential home required a 70-mile drive.
The next day I saw one of my ‘adoptive style’ parents for the day who was visiting Norfolk before returning home, another long drive. She is approaching 90 and lives alone, and seeing her I know means a lot to her.
After writing this, I found a report illustrating the exact point I’m making. I don’t identify myself as a carer, but when I sat down and thought how much I do for others, it was quite a revelation.
All of the above illustrates one of the main reasons why I walk because it gives me the opportunity to get out of the house and to create some alone time, or an occasion to unwind with fellow walking friends. It creates freedom around my obligations of caring for others. Walking is free, flexible, adaptable and can be done at any free time, for as little or as long as you want. You can incorporate it around other activities, in this case, my two days away visiting elderly relatives. It also eases my back pain as well as helps two arthritic knees, also a casualty of caring when I was a nurse.
Supporting others has a cost, and from what I have briefly read so far, this cost appears to be increasing as we juggle a cost-of-living crisis and dwindling resources within the NHS and Adult Social care. Our national news recently highlighted how many councils can’t even meet basic care needs for people living at home and some are on the verge of bankruptcy.
This brings me to mention the new blogger I have connected with online from the USA and the power of writing to help others. I do hope you will look at Tina’s work. We are now helping each other to get our work noticed so others can benefit from our experiences. You can find her here. She would be so happy if you took a look at her site and left a comment.
The power of community can make a significant impact in terms of stress and the ability to cope. We need to help each other like never before, and the urgency has never been greater.
I’ll leave you at the church where I was sitting in Bungay, Norfolk where I recorded the introduction. I was sitting to the left of this picture, listening to the world go by and about to walk all around the village looking at the open gardens. My back was hurting but by the time I completed nearly 10,000 steps ( having enjoyed some beautiful gardens) my pain was gone and I felt so much lighter. I went on to enjoy the rest of my day and spent two hours with renewed energy visiting my dad who has vascular dementia. He was quite bright that afternoon and still knows who I am. I am blessed.
What care have you been giving this week?
What care have you given to yourself?
I know from writing this blog that I need to look after my own needs more consistently because I do far more than I realise for others.
See you next week.
The reference source for census 2021 @ www.ons.gov.uk
