Carers around Australia are being asked to speak up and have their say by completing the 2020 National Carer Survey, which launches today.
A carer is any individual who provides care and support to a family member or friend who has a disability, mental illness, drug and/or alcohol dependency, chronic condition, terminal illness or who is frail. Carers come from all walks of life, cultural backgrounds and age groups.
While the Carers NSW Carer Survey traditionally goes out every two years, this is the first time it has been expanded to be a national survey.
There are around 2.65 million unpaid family and friend carers living in Australia, 854,300 of whom live in NSW, and the Carers NSW 2020 National Carer Survey is one of the major ways we can improve our understanding of caring and carers' lives.
Carers NSW and the other state and territory carers associations work with governments, policy makers and service providers to advocate for and address the needs of carers. Every survey response counts in building the evidence base for better support for carers nationally.
The Carers NSW 2018 Carer Survey highlighted the significant personal consequences of providing many hours of care, including below average wellbeing, high levels of psychological stress and difficulty in accessing services.
In 2018, nearly one in three of the 1,830 carers who responded to the Carer Survey had been in their role for more than 20 years, and over half of respondents provided more than 60 hours of care per week.
Carers NSW CEO, Elena Katrakis said "The Carer Survey provides important research which enables carers to tell us what is and isn't working in their caring role and in the systems they access."
"It is exciting to be able to lead the expansion of this survey nationally, to support carers more broadly across the country," Ms Katrakis said.
The 2020 National Carer Survey is being conducted by Carers NSW with the support of the other state and territory carers associations and an expert reference committee that includes academics from several universities and representatives of government departments. Carers NSW receives funding from the NSW Department of Communities and Justice to conduct the biennial Carer Survey.
The survey is completely anonymous and is open to any family or friend carer over the age of 16. Key findings from the survey will be published in a publicly available report and survey data will be used in a range of further publications.
The 2020 National Carer Survey is available online until 5pm on Tuesday 30 June 2020 - www.surveymonkey.com/r/2020NationalCarerSurvey
