Every day, millions of people provide unpaid care to a loved one living with a neurodegenerative condition. Whether it’s a parent with Dementia or a friend with Huntington’s Disease, unpaid carers often take on this role quietly and without enough support.
As a Registered Psychologist and EMDR Consultant, I have spent many years supporting people dealing with trauma, chronic stress and the challenges of caregiving. Even with over two decades of experience, I am still struck by how little attention is given to the mental health of unpaid carers.
That is why my colleagues and I have focused our latest paper on this important topic.
Caring comes at a cost
Caring for someone can be both meaningful and emotionally complex. Many carers take on this responsibility out of love, duty or necessity. However, the psychological strain that comes with it is often overlooked.
Some of the common challenges unpaid carers face include:
- Acute stress and burnout
- Emotional exhaustion and compassion fatigue
- Disrupted sleep and physical health issues
- Anxiety, depression and feelings of isolation
- Feelings of guilt and fear about what the future may bring
- Anticipatory grief, complicated grief and loss
- Post traumatic stress for some
Those with caring responsibilities don’t always recognise themselves as unpaid carers
Despite this, many carers do not recognise their own need for support until they reach breaking point. This is why it is important for professionals to be proactive and ask clients about past or present caring responsibilities, so carers can be identified.
Where unpaid carers are thought to benefit from psychological interventions, it is important that they are adequately signposted to appropriately qualified mental health professionals to receive this support.
Our paper also highlights that where a small proportion of carers are given access to psychological support, EMDR therapy is not often presented as an option. Consequently, we hope this can improve in the future.
We also hope that EMDR practitioners will find some of our ideas and suggestions for working with this client group useful, raising awareness of their needs, inspiring them to offer an effective therapeutic intervention to carers, whatever the stage of their caring journey.
The Role of EMDR in supporting unpaid carers
Our paper in the European Trauma Quarterly (link below) explores how Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) can help unpaid carers of people with neurodegenerative diseases. EMDR is a well-established, evidence-based psychological treatment originally developed for trauma, but it is now used in many areas of mental health.
EMDR can assist carers by:
- Reducing the emotional impact of difficult caregiving experiences
- Strengthening emotional resilience and coping skills
- Addressing complicated grief and anticipatory loss
- Helping carers reconnect with their own needs and sense of self
- Support carers with building a life after caring (e.g. EMDR informed Coaching)
Click below to read the article.
