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Resources > Caring for the carers
Caring for the carers - the Christian Carers Fellowship
Facts about carers
The latest UK census figures from 2001 show that 6 million people are unpaid, informal carers of whom 1.25 million are providing over 50 hours of care per week. 10% of all people (including young people providing care) are carers, meaning that probably 12% of the adult population are carers, which is one in eight adults.
Recent research by Carers UK showed that informal carers are saving the state £57 billion a year, the equivalent of a second National Health Service, meaning the average carer saves the UK £10,000 a year.
Who are these carers?
They are family and friends who are caring for husbands, wives, parents, children, friends, sisters, brothers, other relatives or neighbours.
Many carers look after a relative within their own home while others take responsibility for friends or relatives who live miles away or who live in a residential setting or nursing home.
Caring is not exclusive to either sex or age; men are almost as likely to care as women, totalling some 42%. Some carers may care for just a few hours a week; others all day, every day.
The person for whom they care may have a physical disability, a learning disability, a mental health difficulty, chronic illness, frailty due to old age or a terminal illness.
Some people have been caring for many years while others may find themselves thrust into a caring situation overnight, as the result of something like a stroke. It can be tiring and often stressful and many carers struggle on with little or no help with the result that they may become isolated, frustrated and are likely to develop health problems of their own.
What is the Carers Christian Fellowship?
The Carers Christian Fellowship is a national charity, set up in 1997 which aims to offer support and encouragement for Christians of all denominations who care for their friends, relatives or neighbours in such situations.
Whatever their particular circumstance, all carers have much in common and many find it a release to share with others who understand. Christians can support each other in prayer and share the reality of Christian experience in the middle of the stresses of caring.
The Carers Christian Fellowship seeks to come alongside those whose lives have been touched by the experience of caring for someone close to them. A quarterly newsletter provides information for carers as well as encouragement through reflections, poems, letters and items written by carers about their own experiences and lessons of faith learned through the joys and heartaches of their way of life.
Various local groups meet together for prayer and fellowship. Quiet Days and Fellowship Days are arranged in different parts of the country. Individual carers can also be linked up with others where requested and prayer requests shared. For more information about the Carers Christian Fellowship, please contact Mrs Sue Jones (Co-ordinator) Tel: 01793 887068, email, sjones.ccf@ntlworld.com or visit the Carers Christian website at www.carerschristianfellowship.org.uk
What can the church do to support carers?
- Identify the carers in your congregation. Are they being offered support and understanding from the church especially when the caring situation goes on for many years and the carer is not able to be very involved in the church?
- Listen. Every person’s experience of caring is different, so don’t assume you understand what they are feeling.
- Ask after the carer, not just the person they care for. Carers sometimes feel that they are invisible and have lost their own identity.
- Be sensitive in quoting Bible verses. Carers can feel far away from God at times of family crisis. Offer spiritual encouragement gently.
- Try not to give advice – listening is far more important.
- Be specific in offering help, rather than offering it in a general way e.g. offer to sit with the disabled person to relieve the carer or offer to do some shopping.
- Be patient – carers may take time to trust someone – so take time to build a relationship.
- Be reliable and faithful. Carers often feel they are out of sight and out of mind, when their caring circumstances mean they are unable to attend church. Find ways of helping them to feel included and remembered without putting them under pressure.
- Don’t be judgmental. Caring is exhausting and causes intense feelings – anger, frustration, guilt or despair as well as moments of fulfilment and joy. Accepting the carer with all their mixed up emotions is a great gift.
Prayer points
- Pray for grace and patience for carers and for those for whom they care.
- Pray that they may feel part of God’s family even if they are unable to meet with their local fellowship very often.
- Pray for strength, encouragement and hope for them as they struggle with their daily routines.
- Pray for family relationships, which are often strained as the result of caring.
- Pray that more carers might hear of the Carers Christian Fellowship and benefit from the support that is offered.
