Friday 24 July marks International Self-Care Day, established in 2011 by the International Self-Care Foundation (ISF), a UK-based charity, and set on the 24th of the 7th month as a reminder that self-care should be practised 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This year’s theme, “Self-Care puts your health in your hands: Test. Track. Thrive.”, puts the focus on regular health checks and daily habits. But for many of the families we work with at Synergy Complex Care, self-care isn’t about spa days or step counts. It is the far harder task of looking after your own health while caring for someone else’s. New research from Noble Live-In Care, reported in Care Home Professional, found that 77 per cent of unpaid carers in the UK report experiencing burnout, and 54 per cent say their health has deteriorated since taking on caring responsibilities.
Why carers put themselves last
Caring for a loved one with a long-term condition or complex needs rarely comes with a rota or an off switch. Meals, medication, appointments and everyday worry do not pause for a carer’s own tiredness or ill health, and many people quietly decide that their own needs simply have to wait. Over time, that decision becomes a habit, and the habit becomes exhaustion.
The cost of running on empty
The same research found that 79 per cent of unpaid carers feel constantly stressed, nearly half (49 per cent) have experienced depression as a direct result of their caring role, and 41 per cent have not taken a single break in the past year. This matters not only for carers themselves, but for the people they support, since burnout makes it harder to notice changes, respond calmly, or sustain the kind of steady, patient care that complex conditions need.
What self-care can look like for carers
Self-care does not need to be elaborate to make a difference. It can mean:
- Booking a GP or health check for yourself, not just the person you support
- Accepting help, whether from family, friends or professional carers, rather than managing everything alone
- Building in short, regular breaks rather than waiting for a crisis to force one
- Talking to other carers, in person or online, who understand what the day-to-day actually involves
- Noticing early warning signs, such as irritability, disrupted sleep or withdrawing from friends, rather than pushing through them
Spotting the warning signs early
Noble Live-In Care highlights decision fatigue and mental fog, irritability and resentment, persistent exhaustion, withdrawal from social life, and declining physical or emotional health as common signs of carer burnout. None of these mean someone cares any less. They usually mean someone has been carrying too much, for too long, without enough support.
How we can help
At Synergy Complex Care, we know that supporting a loved one with complex health needs, whether that involves ventilation, spinal injury, a neurological condition or acquired brain injury, is a significant undertaking, and families cannot sustain it alone indefinitely. Our care teams work alongside families rather than replacing them, providing trained, consistent support that allows family carers to take a proper break, attend to their own health, or simply have an evening to themselves, knowing their loved one is in safe, skilled hands. We believe that supporting the carer is part of supporting the person, and that good complex care should protect everyone’s wellbeing, not just the person receiving it.
If this International Self-Care Day has you thinking about how much you have been carrying, we would love to talk about the support that could make things a little lighter.