National Seniors Australia
OLDER Australians caring for loved ones are putting their own health, relationships and retirement plans under strain, with new research revealing many are shouldering the responsibility without respite.
The National Seniors Australia’s Older Australians’ Experiences as Carers report has highlighted the pressures facing older unpaid carers and prompted calls for stronger protections and better access to support.
The research draws on the 2026 National Seniors Social Survey, in which about a quarter of 4102 participants identified as current or recent carers.
Among current carers, 58 per cent said the role had negatively affected their lives. Across the carers surveyed, 89 per cent had not accessed respite care, while half of those who had reported difficulties obtaining it.
Behind those figures are older people helping partners, parents and other loved ones through disability, illness and the challenges of ageing, often while managing health problems of their own.
The work stretches well beyond helping someone shower, dress or take medication. It includes preparing meals, maintaining homes, arranging transport, managing finances and paperwork, and keeping track of appointments.
Three in five current carers surveyed provided care daily or almost all the time, while a quarter cared for more than one person.
For a third of care recipients, the survey respondent was their only source of care, paid or unpaid.
That responsibility can leave little room for the carer’s own needs.
Among respondents who reported negative impacts and answered the follow-up question, about three in five said their mental health had suffered and almost half reported effects on their physical health. Some 44 per cent said caring had negatively affected their relationship with the person they supported.
Travel, hobbies and interests were also commonly affected, as carers struggled to find time away or someone else to step in.
Written responses described exhaustion, isolation and the feeling of losing a life beyond caring. Some spoke of retirement years consumed by responsibilities they had not expected, while others were providing care despite their own chronic pain.
