The new program offering much needed support to older carers

A new pilot program is offering older Australian carers essential support by focusing on enhancing their health and well-being, ensuring they can maintain their caregiving roles with improved vitality.

The program, offered by the National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA), a partnership between Monash University and Peninsula Health, leverages the expertise of a social worker, psychologist, occupational therapist, and physiotherapist to support older carers aged 50 and above.

It helps carers identify and prioritise their goals, empowering them to address their own health needs. This is especially important, as many of these carers may also be dealing with age-related physical and mental health challenges.

Peninsula Health’s Director of Community and Ambulatory Services, Iain Edwards, said research had identified a glaring gap in the support available for carers.

“This service bridges the gap by identifying the particular needs of the carer to enable them to care more effectively,” Edwards said.

“This may be through addressing some of the emotional and psychological impacts that can occur, as the person being cared for might now be quite different. Then through Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy support, we are able to help with the logistics around making caring easier, whilst maintaining the physical health and wellbeing of the carer.”

NCHA’s Director Professor Velandai Srikanth is well aware of the difficulty that comes with caring for a loved one.

“We know that feelings of isolation and loneliness are real, and that often older carers’ own health and wellbeing needs can fall by the wayside,” Professor Srikanth said.

“Our Carer Health and Wellbeing Service is the first of its kind in Australia and was established to make real and tangible inroads into addressing this inequity, by giving older carers, and the communities who assist them, access to opportunities and support systems that will enable the carer’s health and wellbeing to also remain a priority.”

Ivan Freer, 72, is all too aware of the challenges that can come with being an older carer having been a full-time carer for his wife for the last two years.

With the support of the Carer Health and Wellbeing Service, Freer has been able to fulfill his role as a carer while also looking after his own health.

“The Service has helped me a lot, and it is definitely needed. I am able to speak to them about a lot of things and they have sent me in the right direction to get help or get what we need,” Freer said.

“I’ve got my own health problems, my health is something that I can’t put on the backburner, I have to keep up with it, otherwise things aren’t going to be done at home.

“You can call yourself a carer but I think most people go into it with no experience, and I would recommend this Service to other carers because it is always good to know someone is there for you and that you can ask questions.”