Seeing the funny side of things and realising that other people are worse off than them are the two top coping strategies used by people caring for someone over 75, according to research in November issue of Journal of Clinical Nursing.
Nurse researcher Alison Jarvis from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, explored the caring experiences of 172 carers. She discovered that dealing with the emotional consequences and family tensions created by caring can prove a much greater problem than the tasks that carers perform for the people they look after.
Yet most health and social care professionals focus purely on practical issues, when they should be dealing with carers in a more holistic way and taking account of their emotional needs.