Meeting the mental and physical healthcare needs of carers

Irene Cormac practises as a consultant forensic psychiatrist with a special interest in physical healthcare at Rampton Hospital (Retford, Nottinghamshire DN22 OPD, UK. Email: irene.cormac{at}nottshc.nhs.uk). At Rampton Hospital, she has been involved in the development of a healthy lifestyle programme to improve the physical health of long-stay psychiatric patients. Peter Tihanyi is the Head of Policy, Conferences and Carers’ Funds for the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, the largest national charity providing services for carers in the UK. He has worked with carers since 1994, after working in day care services with elderly people and adults with mental health difficulties and physical disabilities. The authors were members of the campaign committee for ‘Partners in Care’, a joint campaign for carers run by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Princess Royal Trust for Carers.

The health of family carers may affect not only their own lives but also the lives of the people for whom they provide care. This article describes how the caring role can affect the health and well-being of a carer of a person who has a mental or physical disorder. Suggestions are made about how to recognise and ameliorate some of the detrimental effects of the caring role on the carer’s own health.