Surrey charity warns carers are only asking for help after reaching point of crisis
Age UK Surrey is urging carers not to hesitate to come forward for support
The local branch of Age UK say it's common for them to see carers only come forward for support when they reach a point of crisis
The charity define crisis as the point of realisation a situation is impossible to manage alone
Last week marked dementia awareness week, which encourages breaking the stigma surrounding dementia, but also shines a spotlight on carers caring for those suffering from it
Kerry Oakley, who is the dementia manager at Age UK Surrey, says a common reason carers don't reach out for support, is that they don't realise they're a carer
"Carers don't identify themselves as carers. They see it simply as being a partner, parent, child or a friend. They haven't quite grasped the fact that they're a carer. So yes, they don't then reach out on that aspect.
What we've noticed across the board is caring responsibility sometimes develop gradually. You start doing little bits and then it becomes more. So you have to adapt and you don't actually notice until you're at that point.
The support should be meeting the carers where they are at that point in time. So we can't assume everyone is online or the fact that they're confident with technology or able to navigate complex systems during periods of stress and exhaustion. We need to work with them."
Kerry also emphasised the point of the difficulty carers face with a lot of care only being accessible online
"I think what we need to do with the pressures, we need to consider how lots is moving online. Some carers are not able to do that and so we're not supporting the whole lack of isolation and we're making it harder to reach.
So we still need to define who we are, which carers we're supporting and how they are able to navigate the system."
Kerry offered her main bits of advice to carers
"I think chatting with people and to try and find what might be suitable is a good way to start.
I think often we don't talk about it and we try and find things on the internet, but I think if you could find, if you could use, say, Connect to Support Surrey to find something in your local area and then go there and talk to somebody, and they can then always refer to another organisation,
But I think as organisations, we try and network a lot so we know what's going on. So if we can't help as an organisation or there's a wait list or, you know, whatever there is, we can share. We want to help people."