Skip to content
Skip to main content

About this free course

Download this course

Share this free course

Physical activity for health and wellbeing in the caring role
Physical activity for health and wellbeing in the caring role

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

5 The psychological and emotional demands of the caring role

To examine the psychological and emotional demands of the caring role on mental health, it is important to examine the concept of mental health, which is often less well understood than physical health. In Activity 4 you are presented with a brief overview of mental health and are asked to reflect on how the caring role might impact on this.

Close-up of a caregiver supporting a woman, by holding her hands.

Activity 4

Timing: Allow approximately 20 minutes.

Watch Video 3 and reflect on the information presented in this session so far. Consider why the caring role might impact on the mental health of carers.

Download this video clip.Video player: Video 3
Copy this transcript to the clipboard
Print this transcript
Show transcript|Hide transcript
Video 3 What is mental health?
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).
To use this interactive functionality a free OU account is required. Sign in or register.
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Discussion

The video shows mental health as a continuum, with one end of the continuum being where someone is thriving and the other end of the continuum being where someone experiences mental ill health, for example depression. You are shown that mental health can be affected by several factors, including stressors, which can impact where someone might be on the continuum on a given day. This, for example, might be where a carer’s mental health is impacted by the demands of the caring role. You will explore this further in the next section.

You will now consider the challenges of the caring role and reflect how these might impact on the mental health of a carer.