For Junee’s informal carers, work never stops.
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Kath Sizer’s husband Geoff has Alzheimer's, and requires care 24 hours a day.
“When I worked as a nurse I got off at five,” she said. “When you go to work you can say ‘gosh I’m off in an hour’, but here that doesn’t happen, I just have to take each day as it comes.”
Kath and fellow carers Jeannette O’Connor and Barbara Curtis all care for husbands whose conditions are vastly different, but there are common strands in their own experiences.
“A lot of people get very lonely and very isolated,” Mrs O’Connor said. “Everyone basically has the same problems, the same anxieties, stress and frustrations.”
Now a carers’ support group, starting in Junee, will provide a space to have a chat and take a break. The group will be supported by the Junee Hospital and local volunteer health professionals.
Occupational therapist Judy-Ann Emberson said accepting help for carers can be very difficult.
“Taking responsibility to care can be very conflicting as often their loved one is very much changed or deteriorating from their original loved one,” she said.
“Some skills we hope to develop are allowing time for ourselves, mindfulness, identifying stress building.”
By leaning on each other, the carers hope to take some pressure off themselves.