10 November 2008
Carers Need Help with their Mental Health
Carers have higher rates of depression than the rest of the community, with the greatest risk coming in the first year of care giving, a review of research by the Australian Institute of Family Studies has found.
Carers have poorer mental health including high rates of depression and a lower sense of wellbeing, the Institute says.
“There’s undoubtedly a great public health opportunity within the family relationships sector to try to prevent and intervene early when clients are having trouble working, parenting or providing care,” said Institute Deputy Director (Research) Dr Matthew Gray.
“They may express fears of being overwhelmed by circumstances or that they’ll lose it with their children and these could be the indicators of a risk to their mental health,” Dr Gray said.
Transitioning into a carers’ role is a key point when mental health problems emerge, with both men and women experiencing a greater increase in depression and a decline in happiness, compared to non-caregivers.
“Mental health problems and illnesses can have a considerable effect on families and relationships especially with issues such as lack of proper identification, not accessing treatment and the fact many of these are long-term problems,” said Institute researcher Elly Robinson.
“Carers needs have to be attended to in their own right but some in the mental health service system may only look at how to help the unwell family member. This presents an opportunity for family relationship services to respond to these needs by screening for, identifying and dealing with problems as they become evident during counseling,” Ms Robinson said.
The Institute says clients with less severe issues could be helped by family and relationship services, others by specialists, while some may need both family and mental health services working together.
“Research tells us that when people come to family counseling they could be worried about finances, housing, parenting, work issues or more serious concerns like domestic violence and even child abuse so it’s critical that family services have a sound knowledge of mental health issues,” Ms Robinson said.
“Carers often talk about their stress levels rising but may avoid identifying their own mental health problems if they think that the ill family member can’t afford for them to be sick or not coping. This means the mental health needs of carers may remain hidden and unaddressed which isn’t good for them or the people they care for,” she said.
Facts About Mental Illness
- One in five Australian adults had experienced a depressive, anxiety or substance abuse problem in the past 12 months.
- More than a third of individuals who meet the criteria for one mental health diagnosis also met the criteria for one or more other disorders.
- 680,000 workdays per month are lost due to sickness absence for mental health reasons.
- An extra 1.9 million ‘work cut-back days’ per month were attributed to mental disorders with 900,000 of these due to depression.
- About 14% of children aged 4 -7 years had mental health problems.
- Only 32% of people receiving help were receiving treatments known to be efficacious.
- Socio-economic factors such as sole parenthood and unemployment are linked to depression.
- The odds of depression were 25 times greater for people in an unhappy marriage.
Full references for the facts listed above can be found in the paper AFRC Issues No. 4.
Family relationships and mental illness: Impacts and service responses, AFRC Issues No. 4, 2008.
Authors:
Elly Robinson, Manager, Australian Family Relationships Clearinghouse
Bryan Rodgers, Professor of Family Health & Wellbeing at the Australian Demographic & Social Research Institute of The Australian National University
Peter Butterworth, Fellow at the Centre for Mental Health Research of the Australian National University
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