Focus on Hidden Carers in Kent

In 2018, Healthwatch Kent conducted a programme of outreach work to speak to hidden carers across Kent in order to ensure their voice was heard and used as part of a review of carers services being carried out by Kent County Council.

Hidden carers are people who aren’t part of official carer support groups, or in touch with agencies providing support to carers, for a variety of reasons.

Healthwatch Kent reported that 50% of the Carers they spoke to were caring for someone for over 50 hours a week. Many people simply said “they need looking after all the time’. The biggest challenge carers faced was their psychological wellbeing, closely followed by the need to manage nursing tasks and having no time to get everything done. Extreme tiredness, feeling lonely and isolated were also big issues for Carers. Most people spoken to by Healthwatch Kent had either retired or been forced to give up work so that they could provide the care.

85 people reported that they were caring for someone all on their own, with 45 saying that they relied on family or friends and neighbours for support.

Healthwatch Kent state in the report that they would normally make formal recommendations based on the feedback we have heard but, in this report they decided to purely share the feedback and ensure as many organisations as possible hear the voice of these hidden carers. The findings were shared with Kent County Council to use during the review of Carer services.