If Patient is to Doctor, Carer is to...

Thanks for the helpful replies.

I’m specifically referring to informal adult carers of of other adults. For example infirm parents, spouses with dementia or even adult children with mental health issues.

Recipient could work as suggested, and I really like dependant however dependant has a clear legal implication which isn’t always helpful… I’ll go back through the replies and try them in context

Jim

This gets my vote, if we’re voting…

If inventing terms isn’t entirely off the table, how about dependee?

We call them, depending on context:

recipient
consumer
member
beneficiary