Informal carers are people who provide care to those who need it within the context of an existing relationship, such as a family member, a friend or a neighbour. The demands of the role often go beyond what would normally be expected of these relationships. People who need help may also receive formal services from government and other organisations. The informal (unpaid) care often complements formal (paid) services. (For information on people who work as paid carers in the welfare sector, see Welfare workforce.)
The type and level of informal care can vary considerably depending on the care recipient’s needs and condition. These may relate to physical function, mental health, an end-of-life health condition, old age or disability. An informal carer might carry out many tasks that paid services would otherwise provide, to help someone with showering, eating or shopping, provide in-home supervision, provide transport for moving about in the community, or carry out medical or therapeutic care.
According to the 2015 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, there were 2.7 million informal carers in Australia. More than one-third (37% or 991,000 people) of all carers were aged 35–54 (average age was 50) (ABS 2016).
More than 1 in 10 Australians are informal carers
In 2015, almost 860,000 people (32% or 1 in 3 carers) were primary carers, meaning they provided the most care to the person needing support in one or more core activities (self-care, mobility and communication) (ABS 2016). ‘Other carers’ are people who provided informal care to someone but were not their primary carer.
Primary carers are most commonly female (68%, compared with 50% of other carers in 2015). This varied further by age, with middle-aged primary carers particularly likely to be female (81% of those aged 35–44, and 76% of those aged 45–54) (Figure 1).