About carers

Who are carers?

Carers are people who provide ongoing, unpaid support to people who need it because of disability, chronic illness, mental illness, frail age, dementia or drug or alcohol dependency. This includes foster carers who are caring for a child that needs additional support due to one or more of these conditions.

In many cases, people who perform caring duties do not think of themselves as carers. This is because they are looking after someone they love.

There are over 850,000 carers in NSW. This includes people of different cultural backgrounds, ages, religions, genders and sexual orientations.

Find out more about carers in the NSW Carers Facts Infographic (PDF, 3.1 MB) or download a plain text version of the carers facts (DOCX, 14.5 KB).

Who are young carers?

Young carers are children or young people (aged 25 years and under) who provide ongoing unpaid support to people who need it because of their disability, chronic illness, mental illness, drug or alcohol dependency, dementia, or frail age.

Young carers have a level of responsibility that would usually be associated with an adult. They also have to juggle these responsibilities with other important activities such as attending school, university or work.

What do carers do?

A carer’s responsibilities will depend on the needs of the person they care for. Some carers help with daily activities such as preparing meals, bathing, dressing, going to the toilet and taking medicine. Other carers look after people who are mostly independent but need help with tasks such as banking, transport, shopping or housework. Every situation is different.

For more information about the role of carers and support services available for carers in NSW, visit the It's Caring website.