A 70-year-old woman caring for her mentally disabled husband all by herself says she doesn’t have a life anymore and no longer feels like an individual. More than anything, “I’m lonely. I’m extremely lonely. I don’t have the social contact that I once had. Your friends move on, they’ve got their own lives. They’re not there for you.”
Carers NZ chief executive Laurie Hilsgen said a recent wellbeing survey showed that was a common feeling. “Almost 80 percent of those carers say they feel lonely or isolated,” Hilsgen said. Read or listen to the full interview at RNZ.