In spring 2012 Headway undertook a research project designed to examine various aspects of caring for someone with an acquired brain injury. Here we present a summary of the results and their implications.

We set out to analyse the impact caring duties have on carers' psychological, physical, financial and social wellbeing. We also tried to ascertain how much support carers are receiving from statutory services and whether that support is meeting people's needs. In order to do this, we designed a questionnaire hosted on the Survey Monkey website, which people could complete online or on printed copies downloaded from the Headway website.

The response we received was exceptional, with over 350 carers taking part.

Key findings include:

• 60% of brain injury carers feel they do not receive adequate support in their caring duties.
• Just 7% of brain injury carers receive help from social workers in their caring duties.
• Only a quarter (27%) of brain injury carers have received a carers assessment.
• Half (49.5%) of survey respondents were not aware they were entitled to a carer's assessment, despite the legal requirement for local authorities to ensure carers are made aware of their right to an assessment.
• Just 24% of brain injury carers are satisfied with their health. Conversely, a worrying 8% are 'very dissatisfied' with their own health.
• 18% of brain injury carers rate their quality of life as 'poor' or 'very poor'.
• 59% are showing signs of clinical depression with 21% in the severe or extremely severe range.

The results presented provide a striking illustration of the challenges faced by carers. This sample does not represent all brain injury carers, but the high reported levels of depression, anxiety, stress and burden are nevertheless extremely concerning.