Are you a private carer looking after an ageing family member?
If so, you are one of at least 30,000 throughout New Zealand doing a thankless job for our cherished loved ones — and saving the health sector from complete meltdown.
There are two main types of carers in the aged-care sector.
First is the professional: nurses, health professionals and frontline workers in paid employment doing a brilliant job of seeing to the needs of their patients. They are the backbone of our aged-care homes and hospitals.
Often they are young immigrants from Asian countries who respect and value the elderly far more than we do here in New Zealand.
Typically they are poorly paid and work long hours — still, they get to go home at the end of their shift and benefit from employment conditions that include paid holidays, overtime and sick leave, all benefits of waged workers in New Zealand.
The second type of carer is the private carer. Usually a spouse, partner or family member, they devote their time to looking after an aged loved one experiencing physical or mental challenges such as Alzheimer’s/dementia.
They are unpaid, under appreciated and under the radar — these invisible carers spend every minute of every day (and night) caring, yet their work goes unrecognised.
There is no pay, no leave, no overtime and no "shift end" for these carers. So many problems arise at night, be it incontinence, health issues, insomnia, depression or wandering: the private carer must be on duty to deal with it.
It is an incredibly taxing role, and an absolutely essential one.
A recent study predicts there will be a shortage of up to 12,000 aged-care home beds by the end of this decade — that is 12,000 aged family members with nowhere to go.
Build more aged-care homes?
In today’s model the return on investment is seen as inadequate for the private sector to fill the gap yet at a cost of $65,000 per year per patient, the cost of providing aged-care services is already proving too challenging for the public sector.
With a comparable average cost of just $7500 per year, right now private carers are the ultimate bargain, and are already saving the health sector from a demand/supply crisis.
But the private carer has to give up work, social life and other interests to be there for their dependent family member.
It is not surprising that not everyone steps willingly into the role — and that many private carers grow tired of the drudgery, isolation and overwhelming responsibility of their unpaid and unrecognised efforts.
It we expect private carer/family home arrangements to continue to cover the rapidly growing shortages in aged-care beds we need to develop incentives to enable the family home to genuinely the first choice of care for everyone concerned — and to help private care continue for longer.
What incentives can be offered to private carers? What about tax breaks, food and fuel discounts, rent and rates subsidies?
We have a SuperGold Card scheme for the elderly — why not a SuperCarer Card to give private carers discounts on key expenses?
What about a "My Home, My Choice" maintenance programmes for the family home? Perhaps local bodies could buy uninsurable sea rise-prone properties, upgrade and rent them cheaply to private carers and their patients?
Not to mention the positives that formal community recognition, increased access to respite care and active membership of a social carers group could deliver.
It is clear that private carers are a vital solution to the growing demand for aged-care beds.
The question is: when will those in power wake up and recognise the critical importance of these unsung heroes?
While we wait, perhaps it is time we carers unite for our cause, form a nationwide carers co-operative and work together to get the recognition and support we properly deserve.
■David Tucker was a private carer for his wife for five years. He is now working with Alzheimer’s Otago and is setting up a carers group in Mornington.
