Identifying the Carer Project – final report and recommendation for the Commonwealth Department of Health & Ageing:

The Commonwealth Department of Health & Ageing has released the final report and recommendations from the Identifying the Carer Project.

The Australian Government funded the Private Mental Health Consumer Carer Network (Australia) to undertake a project examining issues associated with the identification of carers, prior to the future development of a burden of care measures for carers.

The project aimed to address the following issues, in both the public and private sectors including the current practice regarding the identification of carers, policy and legislation impacting on the identification of carers, and preferred processes for identification.

This report presents the findings of that project and summarises these into a series of recommendations for consideration by governments, professional organisations and public and private services.

The recommendations are designed to strengthen the identification of, and support for, the important group of people who provide significant and sustained contribution to the care of people with a mental illness.

The full Report can be viewed from the Australian Government, Department of Health and Ageing website at: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-i-carer