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.
Activity 4
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.
Transcript: Video 3 What is mental health?
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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.