It has been a while since my last blog post. Usually I review psychiatry or psychology lectures, but I thought to go back into writing more about carers. This time I think I shall blog about why people want to be there for others, especially those that are close to them.

The role of a carer unfortunately is not an easy task or one that people are often ready for. Who is to say when the next person is to be struck down by a physical or mental illness. If we are to begin that journey where we are to care for our loved one, there are many paths that we can go down and each path can make things easier or incredibly difficult in the long run.

I want to set this blog around the family, since I guess thats where I started my caring role and I guess its fairly common for carers to care within the family role. We still must not forget carers who care for neighbours, friends or even strangers.

A Carer is someone who is unpaid and providing support for someone who cannot support or care for themselves. Carers do a vast amount of support for the caree “That being the person receiving care”. Carers often find they are doing chores, providing emotional or physical support, carers liase with health professionals and more. I will not go too deeply into what a carer is and will leave that for another time.

When someone is caring within the family, there is a cooperation. As a family we need to try work as a unit. If a member of that family fails, then another member will try and step in and support the family. This is not always the case as some families might leave a single person to try and support someone by themselves. A carer may have to put their lives on hold, infact to be clear “sacrifice” is often the core of a carer.

Still, carers can only hope but to set an example to other family members. There is always a fear that if carers fall unwell, we can only hope someone will be there for us. The problem is this is a difficult task since carers may not be able to develop other relations who are able to support them in their time of need.

Within the family there are those who feel we have something in common. Being there for the family can make such a difference as we share experiences, warmth, a home, dreams, food, emotions and much more. As a carer if our close relative risks critical health, we may feel that we are loosing part of ourselves. We have become so familiar forming a relationship within the family unit, that we cannot stand to see our loved ones suffer. Carers want to make a difference and be there in order to hope for a better day, where we can see our close relatives recover.

As people, we all share things deep down. We love, we hope, we fear and we learn. As people we wish to set an example for others to follow. We want to show the community that we can support our family through thick and thin. It is not enough to be there when everything is going well, we need to help out when times get rough. Carers want to be there when our close relatives suffer and no one else can step in.

To care for someone in the home can make so much difference within the family. There are those who are in a rush to ship someone off so others can take care of them. Perhaps such people have resources to allow this and maybe that might be for the best, but carers wish for their loved ones to stay in familiar surroundings for as long as it is possible. If the caree falls unwell in their health and ends up in hospital, the home becomes different, its becomes almost empty, almost lonely. We often wonder how well our close relative is doing.

Carers set an example to the community, because if there is too much pressure on carers, then that pressure will unfortunately fall on their families. If families begin to suffer, then eventually the community can become distant and fall apart, this then can lead to a fragmented society and we have to look for leaders in our society that can make a difference.

We all have come from somewhere and we all set an example, no matter if we choose to set an example or not. Caring for the family is one of the main reasons a carer will take up their caring role.

Thank you for reading my blog and good luck in your caring journey