Source: The Melbourne Age [Dewi Cooke]

LYN Zanchetta's life has had its share of ups and downs over the past four decades. She is a full-time carer for her daughter Lisa.

Lisa, 38, has spina bifida. She goes to TAFE and is able to get herself around the house in a wheelchair. But she needs help with meals and personal care.

At times, money had been tight and her marriage shaky, Mrs Zanchetta said. They are problems many carers share, according to a Federal Government report that show carers have higher rates of depression than the general population. Their partners are also at risk of depression and one in three marriages break down.

The report, prepared for the federal Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, details for the first time the flow-on effect that caring can have on families and friends. It shows that most carers spent more than 100 hours caring, or worrying about caring, each week.

Researchers from the Australian Institute of Family Studies surveyed more than 1000 people receiving Centrelink's carer allowance and found that 19% of female carers and 13% of male carers had recently experienced clinical levels of depression, compared with 11% and 8% in the general population.

A third of carers struggled to pay the bills. Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin told a Melbourne conference yesterday that some carers were forced to pawn personal items or lean on family and friends for help.

Researchers found that the more intense or complex the needs that the person with the disability had, the greater the risk of the carer being depressed.

The first year of caring was found to be the highest risk period, pointing to the need for targeted support in that time.

Report author Ben Edwards said it was also significant that one in four partners of carers had experienced a depressive episode. But he said that generally carers reported being well supported by family.

"Carers make a really important contribution to society and their family members are helping them to do that," he said. "I just think that the intensity and burden of care can, over time, be very difficult and stressful."

Mrs Zanchetta said she would never change her family's decision to care for Lisa.

"It's demanding but I think you can always look at it as rewarding, because you can make a difference," she said.