Carers of people living with dementia experience discrimination

Carers of people living with dementia are treated negatively by others and face discrimination, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The research, published in BJPsych Open found that on top of known challenges experienced by carers, those who look after someone living with dementia also become stigmatised. For the first time, researchers asked 70 family carers of people living with dementia to complete the FAMily Stigma Instrument (FAMSI), a measuring tool which considers how carers feel and what they believe people think about them. They also collected details such as the carers' age and gender. The results showed that over two thirds of carers experienced being treated negatively by others when they were with the person living with dementia (71.4%), were no longer invited to family or social events (68.6%), and were avoided in friendship circles (68. Carers also reported that people stopped going to their house (78.6%) and were more likely to treat them negatively, especially when in public (50. Dr Jem Bhatt (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences) said: "Family carers save our economy £13.9 billion every year, yet our efforts to understand the cost of stigma on their lives has been minimal.