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.

Last updated:

18 Oct 2022

Was this content useful?
We will use your rating to help improve the site.
Please don't include personal or financial information here Please don't include personal or financial information here
Please don't include personal or financial information here Please don't include personal or financial information here

We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the First Nations Peoples of NSW and pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future. 

Informed by lessons of the past, Department of Communities and Justice is improving how we work with Aboriginal people and communities. We listen and learn from the knowledge, strength and resilience of Stolen Generations Survivors, Aboriginal Elders and Aboriginal communities.

You can access our apology to the Stolen Generations.

Top Return to top of page Top