Jacqueline Wagenaar, 72, from Lelystad cares for her husband Jan, who has balance and memory problems and is less alert after spending three months in a coma nine years ago. She said the caring was done with love but could be exhausting because she was constantly focused on him and worried that something might go wrong. She also said her world had become smaller and that she had lost contact with friends and did fewer things.

Every two weeks, Wagenaar visits a support group for carers in Lelystad. On Mantelzorg Day, she joined other carers on an outing to Pantropica, which she described as a welcome change. Figures cited from the Dementia Monitor of Alzheimer Nederland and Nivel said that 68 percent of carers experienced mental problems, six in ten had physical complaints, nearly two-thirds felt lonely and 65 percent experienced relationship problems.