A report recently launched by The Princess Royal Trust for Carers reveals that 70% of older carers suffer a devastating impact on their health due to their caring role. The report ‘Always on Call, Always Concerned’ highlights the concerns of older carers while demonstrating how essential it is to support local centres that look after older carers’ needs.
Based on a survey of 639 carers aged 60-94, the report found that 65% of older carers have long term health problems or a disability themselves and seven out of ten (68.8%) say that being a carer has an adverse effect on their mental health.
Of the UK?s approximately six million carers, around half are aged over 50 and 1.5 million of these are carers over the age of 60 alone.