Who’s caring for whom? Disabled Indigenous carers experiences of Australia’s infrastructures of social protection

ABSTRACT

Almost a quarter (23.9%) of Indigenous Australians report living with a disability. While most of them are cared for at home by female family members, there is limited understanding and insight into their lives. There is even less known about Indigenous primary carers who often also live with a disability and/or serious health condition requiring ongoing medical healthcare and support. This paper explicitly explores Indigenous disabled carer experiences who are navigating complex infrastructures of social protection for those that they care for and to gain support for their own health and disability needs as a disabled carer. The paper illustrates the significant disadvantages they experience given their regional locations of residency and the historicity of disability-carer support availability. Drawing upon their narratives from semi-structured interviews and yarning circles, three significant themes emerge: (i) Extended carer responsibilities for the family, (ii) Challenges applying for and receiving financial support as carers to support their own wellbeing as a disabled person and the disabled family member they cared for, (iii) Living in unsuitable accommodation.

KEYWORDS:

• Caregiving
• carers
• disability
• Indigenous
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• social protection
• services
• support

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This paper has been supported by research emerging from Karen Soldatic’s Australian Research Council [grant number DE160100478] DECRA Fellowship.