Carers Week shines spotlight on carers in regional Australia

Posted October 21st 2009

by DPS

As Carers Week gets underway, new research released by Carers Australia in partnership with Commonwealth Financial Planning offers some key information about carers in regional and remote Australia.

Entitled ‘The Tyranny of Distance? Carers in regional and remote areas of Australia’, the research undertaken by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, attempts to fill in some of the gaps in knowledge around carers in these areas of the country. Where are carers based in regional and remote Australia? How is their access to services? How is their social, health and economic wellbeing? And how does drought impact carers?

Key findings include:

New South Wales had the most carers in inner regional areas (132,000), next was Victoria (97,000). In outer regional areas, New South Wales (NSW) had the second largest carer population (44,000) behind Queensland (48,000)
Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory had the most carers in remote areas
in remote and very remote areas, the proportion of carers who were Indigenous was high in all states and territories. In NSW, the proportion of carers who were Indigenous in inner regional areas was 3.2% higher than in any other state or territory
the age profile of carers in major cities, inner regional and outer regional areas were very similar, with most falling into the 45-64 years category. The age profile in remote areas was slightly younger and in very remote areas was much younger, with around double the proportion of carers being aged 15-24 years in very remote areas compared to other areas
carers had higher rates of disability or long-term health problems than non-carers in all regional categories, but this was particularly the case in outer regional and remote areas of Australia
a higher proportion of the male population in outer regional and remote areas had a disability or long-term illness
20% of carers had experienced themselves or someone close to them having a mental illness, compared to 9% of those without caring responsibilities
carers had lower rates of employment than non-carers living in the same areas and carers in major cities
carers living in all areas of Australia were more likely to be living in a jobless household and to experience more ongoing financial hardship
on average, carers experienced 1.71 to 1.80 life events in the last 12 months compared to between 1.03 and 1.07 for non-carers. Given that many carers experience more than one stressful life event in a 12-month period, they are likely to have complex needs that are not easily addressed by any single service provider
drought had a greater impact on the employment population ratios of carers than non-carers.

The lower employment population ratios of carers in drought-affected areas were mainly due to a smaller proportion of carers being in full-time employment in these areas. These findings suggest that drought has a differential impact on carers’ employment prospects and can be seen as a factor exacerbating the processes of social exclusion.

In NSW, Ageing, Disability and Home Care of NSW Department of Human Services, has also provided grants for over 200 Carers Week events hosted by carer support groups and organisations, distributed through Carers NSW. These events are held right across the state from the Illawarra through to the Far North Coast, the Central West to the Riverina/Murray and for carers from a wide variety of caring situations and cultural backgrounds.

Yesterday, National Carers Day provided an opportunity for Australians to celebrate and acknowledge carers across Australia.

For information about Carers Week go to www.carersweek.com.au. To read the report go to http://www.carersaustralia.com.au