Aaron Dryden
Aaron Dryden talks on what it is to be a carer, how the system works and what people need to know....
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Who are you and what is your background?
I am Erin Dryden, and I work for Tel, which is a business helping other businesses solve carer related absence in the workplace. And I've worked with disabled people and carers for pretty much my entire career, spanning over 20 years now in a range of charities that provide support to carers and disabled people. So it's been a real privilege over the course of that career to get to know more about caring and how it impacts people as well as to meet carers and help them with accessing support that they need in my life outside of work, I am dog obsessed and indeed my dog, Mr. Pickles is actually here today and has been providing a lot of support and a lot of entertainment value. I'm also pretty much food obsessed, and when I can make travel and food, connect and explore new foods, that's absolutely my happy place, as well as if dogs are involved.
Can you explain what it means to be a carer and the different types of caregiving roles that exist?
So being a carer means that you are somebody that is looking after somebody else because of their needs. Those might be needs around their physical health. It might be emotional support or it might be due to their mental health reasons. And the types of care that people provide can be anything from really informal sort of checking in and companionship through to something known as medical advocacy where you help somebody navigate all of their options and treatments and things associated with their illness or their disability right through to more hands-on care where people are actually helping with day-to-day living tasks, which could include things like personal care, which could be showering and bathing or dressing through to other help around the home, and anything like illness related, like medication or rehab and physio, those types of things as well.
What are some of the most common reasons someone becomes a carer?
So people can become carers in a number of ways. I think the most common one is that somebody that you are close to usually in your family, but could also be a friend, becomes unwell over time. And typical scenario would be somebody becomes older and they have age related illnesses that require care, but people can also become carers quite suddenly. And that could be because somebody they are close to has an accident or suddenly develops an illness. That means that they have support needs. And those support needs can be any number of things. It very much depends on the circumstances of the person that you're looking after, but it also depends on what carers are actually best placed to do. So in a situation where somebody is doing all of the caring themselves, it will be pretty much everything from emotional support through to physical help and advocating for that person, which means being their voice and helping them speak up and making sure that their needs are met. But if the carer is fortunate enough to have other people involved in delivering care to that person, then they can play more to their strengths, which might include things like somebody that's possibly at a distance might be better placed to do things like online shopping or helping with information and benefits applications and things like that. Whereas somebody who's a bit closer might be better suited to providing that sort of hands-on physical support and care around the home and with their personal care needs.