Supporting our carers
We recognise and celebrate the important contributions carers make to our communities, our state and our economy.
Carers are people who provide unpaid care and support to a family member or friend who has disability, mental ill health, a chronic or life-limiting condition, alcohol or other drug dependence or is frail or aged. Carers also include informal kinship carers who care for children.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 87,000 Tasmanians, or one in six, are carers. This is higher than the national average of one in eight.
Many of us are not aware of how dedicated carers are or fully appreciate the challenges they face every day.
A person can become a carer at any point in their life. This might be as a child, a young person, an adult or as a retiree. Often carers have more than one person to care for. For example, a person may care for a family member with disability and an older parent.
The Supporting Tasmanian Carers: Tasmanian Carer Action Plan 2021-25 focuses on supporting access, encouraging participation and enhancing recognition of carers in our community.
Progress reports
These reports monitor the progress from the Tasmanian Carer Action Plan before it was refreshed in 2024.
2023-24
2022
National carer strategy
The National Carer Strategy 2024-2034 is a framework to support carers across Australia. It recognises the need for services provided across Australian, state and territory governments to be easier to navigate.
The strategy is supported by the National Carer Strategy Action Plan 2024-2027, which outlines the steps the Australian Government will take in the first three years of the strategy to improve wellbeing for carers through the delivery of appropriate services.
Carer Recognition Act
The Carer Recognition Act 2023 defines carers and sets out the obligations of Tasmanian Government agencies to respond to the needs of carers in Tasmania.
The Act includes the Carers Charter, which sets out principles for how government agencies should recognise and support carers.
Carers Charter
- Carers should be acknowledged as diverse and are to be treated as individuals with their own needs within, and beyond, their roles as carers.
- Carers should be consulted in relation to the development and evaluation of policies and programs, and the provision of resources, in so far as those policies, programs and resources affect their role as carers.
- Carers should be empowered to access information and services that are relevant to them in their role as carers.
- Carers should be supported to participate in, and contribute to, the social, political, economic and cultural life of Tasmania, if they so desire.
- Carers should be recognised and respected for their valuable caring role and should be supported in accessing, and engaging in, a wide range of services to ensure their well-being and to maintain their connections to their community.
- Carers’ knowledge about the persons for whom they are caring should be respected, acknowledging that each carer, and each person being cared for, has both rights and responsibilities.
- Carers should be able to raise concerns about decisions, and services, that affect them as carers or the persons for whom they are caring, without the carers or such persons suffering adverse repercussions, and those concerns should be dealt with as promptly as is reasonably practicable.
Minister’s Carer Advisory Council
The Minister’s Carer Advisory Council gives advice, information and insights about issues affecting carers in Tasmania to help develop and deliver effective and evidence-based policy, programs and projects that support and recognise carers.
The council is chaired by the Minister for Community and Multicultural Affairs and includes up to five members with lived experience of caring. It also includes representatives from Carers Tasmania, Mental Health Family and Friends and representatives from Tasmanian and Australian government agencies.
The council plays a key role in identifying systemic issues faced by carers and the services that support carers, and in monitoring the implementation of the Tasmanian Carer Action Plan. The council will also contribute to the development of the next Tasmanian carer action plan.
Services and resources
Carers Tasmania is Tasmania's peak body dedicated to representing the interests of carers. It works with government and the health and community sectors to improve conditions for carers through policy development, research and advocacy.
Mental Health Families and Friends represents families and friends of people living with mental ill health, suicidality and alcohol or other drug use. It provides systemic advocacy from a family and carer perspective, drawing on lived experience to improve mental health services.
Carers Service Map (Word 22.9KB) details the services across Tasmanian Government agencies that support or assist carers.