A Guide for Professionals

Recognising Young Carers

Hello and Welcome to our Professionals

Guide to Young Carers!

St Helens Young Carers Centre defines a Young Carer as:

The Young Carers Centre supports young people aged 6 to 18 years who are helping to care for a family member who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without their support. Young Carers often take on practical and/or emotional caring responsibilities that would normally be expected of an adult.

This guide explains how you can help to recognise young carers and support their needs. It is everybody’s responsibility to recognise and support Young Carers. Even if it is your professional role to work with diagnosing adults you are in a key position to identify any young people in the family and make sure they don’t go unnoticed.

At St Helens Young Carers Centre we take a whole family approach to support carers, providing support wherever possible, whether it’s a trip or activity to provide peer support or a one to one chat. We support families to ensure that they receive a full package of help that they require, making sue all of the relevant services are involved. This helps to ensure the young carers do not need to take on inappropriate levels of care that could be detrimental to the their own health and wellbeing.

Please keep reading through this guide to find out more about young carers and how you can help.

Don’t forget if you have any questions or queries just give us a call on 01744 677279.

Contents

Page

Introduction 3

Defining Young Carers4

Types of caring 5

Why do young people care?6

Why are so many Young Carers hidden?7

The impact of caring 8

Identifying Young Carers10

Introduction

This guide aims to raise awareness amongst professionals working with young people and their families of young carers and the issues facing them.

It explains who young carers are and the types of ‘care’ they may be providing, then explores the potential impact this can have.

This guide also looks at how agencies can better support Young Carers.

Having responsibilities is not necessarily a negative thing. Young Carers are often proud of the support they provide, or in other cases do not realise that they are doing anything different from their peers. However, support must be available to avoid these responsibilities becoming an unwanted load, or putting the individual’s emotional, physical, or personal , development at risk.

In many cases the caring role is managed and is not having any negative impact. However, even where this is the case, it must be recognised that changes to circumstance can lead to a crisis and may require the provision of emergency support.

Defining Young Carers

Young carers are children and young people whose lives are in some way restricted because they provide care, assistance, or support to another family member. Often

on a regular basis, they carry out significant or substantial caring tasks and take on a level of responsibility which would usually be associated with an adult.

The person they care for is often a parent but can be a sibling, grandparent or other relative who

needs care, support or supervision because of disability, chronic illness, mental health difficulties or

problems with drugs or alcohol misuse.

Young Carers are found in families from all economic groups and areas, and can be from any social or cultural background. Some young carers are the main (or primary) carer, while others help someone else tocare (secondary care).

Types of Caring

The main categories of care are:

Domestic Tasks

This category relates to household chores, such as cooking, cleaning washing, ironing, shopping.

General Care

Referring to tasks, such as administering medication, changing dressings and assisting with mobililty.

Emotional Support

Refers to observing emotional state, providing supervision, trying to ‘cheer up’ the cared for person when they are depressed, talking and listening.

Intimate Care

This category includes lifting, washing, bathing, dressing and assisting with toilet requirements.

Child Care

Refers to helping to care for younger siblings in addition to other caring tasks.

Other Responsbilities

Refers to any other miscellaneous tasks, such as paying bills, translating, or accompanying to hospital or other appointments.

Why do Young People Care?

The individual circumstances of each young carer are obviously different, but several factors are likely to influence the reasons young people become young carers:

• The structure of the family unit

A young person may become the carer because a parent requires support. This is obviously more

common in single parent families. In other situations, the level of support required may be too much

for one person to provide, requiring children to become secondary carers supporting the main carer.

Other families may contain more than one member with care needs, thus increasing the responsibilities taken on by others. The support available from others, including the extended family, also has an impact on the level of care being provided by young carers.

• The type of illness/disability/substance misuse and perception of need

The levels of support required can vary widely in accordance with the nature of an illness/disability/substance misuse. They may be stable and managed, or in other cases they may be degenerative or periodic, with sudden and unexpected changes to the cared for’s condition (common in MS, arthritis and mental ill-health).

• Knowledge of the support available

Whilst coming to terms with and managing emerging needs, families are not always aware of who they can turn to for support. This can be compounded in situations where families or individuals fear being stigmatised. Families can often lack information and knowledge of their rights and how to access available support. The combined effects of these factors can lead to young people becoming young carers. In somecases this process is conscious and voluntary. In others it occurs through gradually taking onresponsibilities as they arise, or having demands placed upon an individual to avoid interventionsby ‘strangers’ or through fear of the family being broken up.

So why are so many

Young Carers hidden?

Lots of reasons, including:

  • Young carers do not realise that they are a carer
  • They don’t want to be any different from their peers so they don’t draw attention to their caring role.
  • They want to keep their identity at school separate from their caring role.
  • It’s not the sort of thing they feel they can discuss with their friends.
  • There has been no opportunity to share their story.
  • They are worried about bullying.
  • They worry that the family will be split up and that they will be taken into care.
  • They want to keep caring a secret and/or are embarrassed.
  • They see no reason to tell their story

Impact of Caring

Not all Young Carers experience a negative impact as a result of their caring responsibilities but, particularly where other support is absent or limited, Young Carer's may be vulnerable to a range of negative effects.

Research has consistently shown that negative impact can occur across the personal, health, educational and employment aspects of a Young Carer’s life.

We have identified a few areas that may make you think, as a professional, to ask about a possible caring role:

Personal

  • Young Carers may have limited horizons and aspirations as a result of their reluctance to leave the family home.
  • A fear or reluctance to disclose their situation for fear of judgement or the young person being taken into care.
  • Young Carers are often more mature than their peers that can lead to a sense of isolation.
  • Young Carers may feel frustrated about their own needs and the needs of the person they care for, which may result in feelings of guilt.
  • Low self esteem compounded where their contribution is undervalued and they are excluded from discussion about the family’s needs.

Social

  • Bullying – The different life experience between Young Carers and their peers can result in difficulties due to restrictions on friendships, and lack of empathy from those without caring responsibilities.
  • The isolation from peers and feelings of being an outsider can also lead to Young Carers to avoid discussion with adults regarding their caring role which results in them remaining `hidden`.
  • Young Carers may also face bullying or other negative treatment due to the type of illness or condition present in the family. This ` stigma` by association can be particularly prevalent where mental health or substance misuse are present.
  • Limited opportunities to take part in social or leisure activities.

Health

  • Health problems may develop for Young Carers due to their role. These may be physical health problems, such as back problems, or mental health problems due to a high level of anxiety or worry.
  • Emotional well being of Young Carers can also be negatively effected by seeing a loved one in pain, or dealing with behaviour from a family member which may be irrational, unpredictable and/or hurtful. Bereavement and fear of bereavement will also have an impact on emotional well being of Young Carers.
  • The presence of problematic substance misuse in the family can distort young people’s perception of safe practice.
  • Cleanliness and hygiene can sometimes be an issue.

Education/Employment

  • Many Young Carers leave school with low grades or no qualifications (1in 3 regularly miss school and/or have educational difficulties). Indicators such as missing school, not completing homework, or being tired and distracted are often misunderstood, resulting in them being negatively labelled which compounds social isolation and low self confidence.
  • Young Carers may be unable to complete homework or course work within set time scales, this may be as a result of limited support and guidance from their parents, or due to a having a large caring role and little time to complete.
  • Young Carers may not be able to attend school trips or activities.
  • Young Carers may present with low concentration, due to being worried about the person they care for while in school/college.
  • There is likely to be a poor home/school relationship and parents are less likely to attend parents evening.
  • A combination of factors such as low self esteem, reluctance to leave the family home, and low levels of achievement may lead to difficulties in managing the transition into further education or employment.
  • Young Carers have limited access to extra curricular activities which can hinder personal development.
  • Caring often influences views of the future, leaving some with a reluctance to leave home or pursue post 16 education.

Identifying Young Carers

Every young carer is an individual and each person’s abilityto hide their responsibility can be vastly different, as can theirwillingness to trust and confide in professionals.

However, some identifying features which may bring care responsibilities to the attention of professionals are:

  • • Anxiety or concern over an ill or disabled relative - possibly linked to a fear of bereavement
  • • a need or desire to be in regular contact with home
  • • Often late or missing from school/youth group
  • • Secretive about their home life
  • • Often tired, distracted, withdrawn or anxious
  • • Low self-esteem and self-confidence
  • • Isolated or victims of bullying
  • • Poor relationship with peers
  • • may take on a caring role with younger children
  • • may demonstrate confidence when interacting with adults
  • • Isolation and withdrawal, or behaviour to release pent-up frustration or stress which could be seen

as challenging in a school or youth group setting but is the opposite of their behaviour at home.

  • A young carer may suffer back pain or other lifting related pain.
  • • Outbursts or amplified responses to events due to the emotional strain of a young carer’s responsibilities

The sooner young carers are recognised the easier it is to prevent them from taking on inappropriate levels of care. St Helens Young Carers Centre aims to work with young people from the initial point of a long term illness or disability being diagnosed within their family. We want to support young people before they reach crisis point and show them that there are options available.

In order to obtain this early identification we must work in partnership with health professionals so that as soon as they are diagnose an adult with a long term illness they are able to ask if there are any young people in the family that may require support or advice.

If you suspect that a young person you are working with may be providing a caring role at home, consider having a conversation with the young person and their family. Some useful prompts may be:

  • I've noticed that you've been late in to school a few times this week, is everything OK at home?
  • You seem to be quite tired lately; do you have a lot on at home?
  • Is someone able to help you with your homework at home? If no, why?
  • Do you need any help or support with things at home?
  • Does anyone at home need more help or support than they're getting now?

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