Carers Information
What is a carer?
Let’s be straight to begin with. A carer is not someone who is ‘responsible’ for someone with psychosis.
So a ‘carer’ on this page means anyone who is personally close to, and has some influence on, the day to day life of someone with psychosis.
This usually means a carer is a parent, or a wife, husband, girlfriend or other close relative or friend.
What do carers experience when someone they are close to has a psychosis?
Carers who see the process of someone becoming unwell with psychosis, or are involved with helping someone recover their lives after psychosis, may experience a whole range of reactions themselves:
-shocked
-mystified
-angry or not believing the person
-frustrated
-feeling like there is nowhere to turn to for help
-feeling worn out from looking after someone
-afraid
-like they have to put on a brave face and not tell anyone
These feelings are very normal and are seen very often. The main message to carers from our agency is that you should feel free to try to seek out as many sources of support as you can. This may be from simple things to a good friend who just listens, to speaking to an advice line on the telephone, right up to being more formally involved, like attending carers’ groups and meeting other people whose loved ones may have experienced psychosis, or claiming financial and social support from the government for helping to actually care for a person with psychosis.
If they are involved with the GRIP team, carers are offered a ‘Carers’ Assessment. This is simply a set of questions and a discussion with our team about what impact the person’s life is having on yours, and points the way to you getting further help and support if you need it.
Rethink at www.rethink.org have a lot of useful information for carers too.
