Who Supports the Supporter?
Family carers are part of Australia’s care capacity. Supporting carers helps older people remain connected, independent and engaged in community life.
Family carers are essential to Australia’s care system
Most people think of aged care in terms of services. Yet much of the support that helps older people remain independent is provided by family carers, friends and trusted networks.
Carers help with appointments, transport, medications, communication, navigation, emotional support and advocacy. For many older people, especially those ageing at home, these relationships are not an optional addition to formal care. They are part of the capacity that makes care possible.
- Appointments and transport.
- Medication and daily routines.
- Communication with services.
- Navigating aged care systems.
- Emotional support and reassurance.
- Advocacy and decision-making support.
Many older people would struggle to remain independent without this support. Family carers are part of care infrastructure.
How do we identify, support, measure and sustain the people who help older people remain at home?
Caring in multicultural communities
For many carers from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, caring may involve:
- Language support and interpreting information.
- Cultural explanation and cultural brokerage.
- Helping family members navigate aged care, health systems and services.
- Coordinating appointments, forms and documentation.
- Advocating for family members and supporting communication during assessments.
- Maintaining language, identity and cultural continuity.
This additional work can remain largely invisible. The presence of a family carer should not automatically be interpreted as indicating lower support needs. In many situations, it may indicate that significant communication, navigation and coordination work is already being absorbed by families and communities.
Family availability is not the same as family communication capacity. A family member may know an older person exceptionally well but may not have the language proficiency, specialised vocabulary, availability or independence required for a complex clinical, legal, financial or safeguarding discussion.
Care capacity is larger than the formal aged care system
When people think about aged care, they often think about providers, workers, funding programs and formal services. These elements are important. However, they represent only part of the support that helps older people remain safe, independent and connected.
Much of Australia’s care system operates through an often invisible network of family carers, friends, neighbours, volunteers, community organisations and trusted support networks. For many older people, particularly those ageing at home, these relationships are not an optional addition to formal care. They are part of the capacity that makes care possible.
This is especially relevant in multicultural ageing, where family members and community networks often help older people understand information, navigate systems, communicate with providers and maintain cultural connections while accessing care.
National data report 3.0 million carers and 1.2 million primary carers in Australia in 2022. Research into long-term home-care recipients found that 82% reported an informal carer between 2012 and 2019, while the reported availability of informal care declined from 86% to 78% across that period.
Together, these findings suggest that informal care is not a marginal feature of Australia’s care system. It is one of the foundations on which the system currently depends. As Australia ages, an important question emerges: who supports the supporter when the system depends on them too?
Family carers are not outside the aged care system. They are part of the wider capacity that helps care work in practice.
Making care capacity visible
Australia increasingly measures service use, waiting times, home care packages, assessments, workforce numbers and expenditure. These data are important. However, many of the elements that help older people access and use support remain far less visible.
We know relatively little about the navigation burden carried by families; translation and interpreting undertaken by carers; cultural brokerage; coordination across multiple services; trusted community support; confidence to seek help; emotional labour associated with caring; and the sustainability of informal care over time.
For multicultural communities, these gaps are particularly important because many of these activities are central to accessing support but rarely appear in routine reporting systems. When they remain invisible, organisations may underestimate what is needed to sustain caring relationships. This can affect planning, workforce design, respite provision, communication support, navigation support and future demand forecasting.
The measurability trap
If we do not count it, it does not count.
- What is not measured is rarely seen.
- What is not seen is rarely recognised.
- What is not recognised is rarely funded.
- What is not funded is difficult to sustain.
The CALD visibility gap
Australia’s cultural diversity is well established, yet national data remain limited regarding CALD carers, CALD dementia carers, navigation support provided by families, language assistance provided by carers, cultural brokerage, multilingual family decision-making, trusted community navigation and the cost of caregiving in multicultural communities.
These forms of support are not absent. They are often difficult to see within existing evidence, reporting and funding frameworks. CALD communities are not absent from need. They are often absent from the evidence architecture.
Understanding care capacity begins with making it visible.
Why supporting carers matters
When carers become exhausted, isolated or unsupported, older people may receive less support, family stress may increase, service demand may grow and risks of crisis may rise. Supporting carers is therefore not only a wellbeing issue. It is an investment in care capacity.
Emerging pressures on care capacity
- Ageing population
- More people living with dementia
- Declining informal-carer availability
- Increasing complexity and workforce pressures
- Greater pressure on carers and support systems
For multicultural communities, these pressures may be amplified by language barriers, digital exclusion, dispersed families, changing family structures, increasing workforce participation among carers, reduced availability of extended-family support and the complexity of health, aged care and community systems.
Support at Home and the broader aged care system cannot safely assume that families will always be available to absorb unmet need. If informal care capacity declines while reliance on it continues, unmet need may emerge elsewhere through crisis presentations, hospitalisations, carer burnout and premature entry into residential aged care.
When we think about supporting older people to remain connected and independent, it is easy to focus on formal services alone. Yet many people also rely on family carers, friends, neighbours and community networks. For multicultural communities, language access, trusted navigation, community connection, culturally safe communication and support for family carers are not optional extras. They are part of the infrastructure that helps people understand, trust and use support.
The question is not simply whether a carer is present. It is whether the caring relationship is informed, supported and sustainable.
Practical tools for service providers
Providers can make care capacity more visible by recognising the family, community and communication support already surrounding an older person. The tools below are the full content previews for the planned MAC Provider Pack. They are practical review prompts, not downloadable tools yet.
Recognise, support and sustain care capacity
CALD Care Capacity Checklist
Language support, navigation, cultural brokerage, dementia communication and future planning.
Detailed preview below · tool in development
Carer Visibility Checklist
Recognise informal-carer roles, wellbeing, communication capacity and the capacity to continue caring.
Detailed preview below · tool in development
Care Capacity Assessment Guide
Conversation prompts for informal care, navigation, communication, planning and respite.
Detailed preview below · tool in development
Carer Capacity Dashboard
Suggested governance measures for carer support, respite, communication, navigation and community connection.
Detailed preview below · tool in development
CALD Carer Support Self-Assessment
Organisational prompts about language access, cultural brokerage, navigation, dementia communication and carer support.
Detailed preview below · tool in development
Preview: CALD Care Capacity Checklist
Does your organisation recognise the following?
- Language support: interpreter use, preferred language and language reversion risk.
- Navigation support: navigation work by carers, Care Finder referrals and service-agreement support.
- Cultural brokerage: family mediation, cultural expectations and community relationships.
- Communication while living with dementia: language changes, communication support strategies and family communication needs.
- Future planning: respite and sustainability, Advance Care Directive discussions, palliative-care awareness and end-of-life discussions.
Preview: Carer Visibility Checklist — including communication capacity
Record and review
- Whether the older person has an informal carer and whether that person identifies as a carer.
- Whether the carer speaks a language other than English or provides interpreting support.
- Navigation work, assessment attendance, appointment coordination and service-agreement support.
- Whether the carer’s wellbeing has been discussed and capacity to continue caring has been explored.
- The date of the discussion and the next review date.
Communication capacity
- Does the older person prefer to communicate in a language other than English? Yes / No / Unsure.
- Who currently supports communication in the older person’s preferred language: family carer, multiple family members, friend, community member, bilingual worker, interpreter or another person?
- How confident is the carer in communicating in the older person’s preferred language: very confident, mostly confident, some difficulty, significant difficulty or unsure?
- Has communication changed recently: no noticeable change, some change, significant change or unsure?
- Examples, if shared: language mixing, greater reliance on a different language, difficulty understanding, reduced literacy, or changes associated with dementia, hearing or cognition.
Co-design communication support
- Record current supports: family communication support, bilingual staff, interpreter, written or simplified information, community-organisation support, visual supports or other supports.
- Document preferred language or languages, preferred communication partners, interpreter requirements, cultural considerations and language-reversion considerations.
- Document approaches that work well, approaches to avoid and the agreed review date.
Preview: Care Capacity Assessment Guide — including communication capacity
Informal care and respite
- Who supports the older person? How many carers are involved? Is the support sustainable? Has caring increased recently?
- Does the carer know what respite options exist? Has respite been discussed, offered or used? What barriers exist?
- Remember that many carers seek respite only when they are already approaching burnout.
Navigation and communication
- Who helps navigate services, attends assessments and assists with service agreements?
- Who interprets information? Does the carer provide language support? Does the older person rely on a particular family member for communication?
- Does the older person prefer a language other than English? Who supports communication in that language? How confident is the carer in that communication?
- Have communication needs changed recently? Consider language mixing, greater reliance on another language, difficulty understanding, reduced literacy, dementia, hearing and cognitive changes.
Co-designing communication support
- What supports currently work: family support, bilingual staff, interpreter, written or simplified information, community support, visual supports or another option?
- Agree and document preferred language or languages, communication partners, interpreter requirements, cultural considerations, language-reversion considerations, approaches that work well and approaches to avoid.
- Set a review date and bring the plan forward if communication needs change.
Planning ahead
- Does the older person have an Advance Care Directive? Has advance care planning been discussed? Does the family understand the person’s wishes?
- Was an interpreter offered? Was information provided in the person’s preferred language? Does the provider know where the document is held?
- Has palliative care been discussed? Are cultural preferences understood? Is language support available? Are spiritual or community supports involved?
Preview: Carer Capacity Dashboard
- Workforce and support: percentage of consumers with identified informal carers; percentage of carers receiving information; percentage referred to support services.
- Respite: percentage of carers offered respite; percentage using respite.
- Communication: preferred language recorded; interpreter use recorded.
- Advance care planning: percentage of consumers with documented ACP or ACD status; percentage of ACP discussions supported by an interpreter where required.
- Navigation: number of Care Finder referrals and navigation-support referrals.
- Community connection: social-support participation, social-support-group participation and community-group engagement.
Preview: CALD Carer Support Self-Assessment
- Support language access: assess the preferred language of the older person and carer; discuss language-reversion risk; offer and record interpreter use.
- Support effective in-language communication: provide information in English and the person’s preferred language, explain service agreements appropriately and check understanding.
- Provide cultural brokerage: include family mediation where needed and discuss cultural expectations and community relationships.
- Support navigation: identify who helps navigate services, recognise navigation as a real task and refer people to Care Finders where appropriate.
- Support dementia care and communication: discuss changing communication needs, language-reversion considerations and family communication strategies.
- Support future planning and carers: discuss respite, sustainability, Advance Care Directives, palliative care, end-of-life discussions, carer capacity and referral to support services.
These tools are in development. They should be clinically, policy and communications reviewed before they are published as accessible downloadable or web-based MAC tools.
Support and resources
Carers often focus on another person’s needs. These pathways can help carers and service providers find information, navigation support, language support, connection and planning resources.
Support for carers
Need information, advice or practical support?
Navigating aged care
Need help understanding or finding support?
Language and communication
Need language support or culturally responsive communication resources?
Supporting someone living with dementia
Information and support for carers and families.
Connection and peer support
Looking for meaningful connection or culturally familiar community support?
Planning ahead
Looking for advance care planning and end-of-life information?
Looking ahead
Australia’s population is ageing and becoming more culturally diverse. Family carers remain central to ageing in place, yet caring roles are evolving as families balance employment, childcare, housing patterns and support for ageing relatives.
There is increasing recognition that ageing in place depends on more than formal services. It also depends on information, community connection, language access, trusted relationships and the capacity of carers to continue in their role.
The challenge is not simply recognising carers. It is recognising and supporting the conditions that help caring relationships remain sustainable: language access, trusted navigation, community connection, respite, information, education and culturally safe communication.
Family carers are often described as the backbone of care. Yet backbones need support too.
When we ask “Who supports the supporter?”, we are asking what helps sustain the people, relationships and communities that make ageing in place possible.
