Young Carers
Young Carers
A ‘young carer’ can be child or young person who takes on a caring role for another family member. This caring role can see these young people provide support to family member ranging from washing, dressing, preparing food to providing medication and ongoing emotional support. A ‘young carer’ may be caring because their family member has a long term illness, drug or alcohol related concerns, mental ill health, physical or learning disabilities.
The pressure of caring for a family member may mean that a ‘young carer’ prioritises the cared for person, or any brothers and sisters they may have and this can often see them fail to recognise their own physical, emotional and mental well being needs. Added pressure can often mean making a choice between caring for family or the opportunity to experience being a child or young person with their own peers.
Young carers projects across the country can often provide a range of services to help children and young people cope with the stress, frustration and isolation of caring for a family member. This can be befriending, focused one to one work, group work and valuable respite in residential opportunities. The invaluable peer support opportunities offered by meeting with other children and young people in similar situations are backed up with support from youth workers who can talk about how to cope, where to get further help and sometimes just the opportunity to have space to themselves.
The links below will connect you to support in your local area:
Extra Support For You
You can also talk to any school or college support staff if being a young carer is causing you stress or you have questions that need answered. If people know you have caring responsibilities they can make sure you have the help you need.
If you’d like to chat, on the phone or online, you can also contact Childline.