For all my life, in different circumstances, I have come across and met some of the most important people in the land, people without whom this country would be severely diminished and the NHS along with social services would be overwhelmed. They are carers and I had no idea just how many there were or of the sacrifices they make in their own lives.
With the population getting older, it follows that there will be more people will conditions like dementia. People with dementia need to be cared for and it’s not just by popping by a few times a day. Many of these carers are not paid by anyone. They are family.
There was a time I could listen to and laugh at so called ‘sick jokes’ about dementia. I don’t feel good about that now but I feel I need to be honest. Having come across family, friends and others with the condition, I know now there is nothing funny about dementia. It is one thing to laugh from a position of sheer ignorance and, in my case, ignorance and heartless stupidity, but it is very different when you learn the brutal facts of such illnesses. I knew a bit then, I know a lot now.
If I think about it, I only need to look down my own street, in a little old council estate, where there are, and have been, a lot of elderly residents who have needed carers. And mostly the carers have been close relatives who care purely for the love.
Some conditions are worse than others. When you see the partners of dementia sufferers, you would need a heart of stone not to sympathise and often to empathise. Think about the person you love most of all and then just imagine – no wait, maybe don’t imagine because that’s not living your life. That’s a negative slant on life. It could all happen of course. But it’s one of the worst things in the world, seeing someone you love, someone who is your life, but they don’t know who you are, they don’t know who anyone is, they don’t know anything that’s real. To be alive, but no longer living.
How many carers do you think there are? A few thousand? Maybe a hundred thousand? How about around six million people just in England. According to the 2011 national census, there are around 3.12 female carers and 2.29 male carers. In percentage terms, 11.8% of the female population of England act as unpaid carers and 8.9% of the male population. Can you imagine what would happen in the event that everyone of these carers called it a day? They won’t, of course they won’t because that is not the nature of families in general and partners in particular.
These are not just carers for the elderly or infirm, but children too, some with severe life-limiting conditions. When someone next tells you that this country is going to the dogs, I suggest you show them these figures.
Add to these figures the many people who live at home with the help only of carers and then those who are in residential care, nursing homes and, frankly, bed blocking in NHS hospitals because there is nowhere for them to go and what you have is a developing crisis of care. Local authority social services are being overwhelmed as their resources are slashed as part of an ideological choice by the government of the day to pare down the state. The crisis in social care is not an accident.
I see nothing from our leaders about carers other than soothing words and, sadly, platitudes. They are left to it not by a society that doesn’t care, but by a ruling class that doesn’t care.
Carers are our unsung heroes and heroines. Whilst honours are handed out to politicians and TV entertainers, we take carers for granted and the government of the day, especially, particularly, this one couldn’t care less.
There is no plan for caring and carers beyond muddling along and hoping for the best. This is because better caring facilities will cost money. Most politicians will not even consider the possibility of extra taxes, especially on the wealthy or redirecting public money from other schemes. It can’t really wait but I suspect it will wait until we are in deep crisis. And the longer we leave it the more it will cost.
It’s time we cared for the carers.
