Young Carers at Christmas
Who is a Young carer?
How can you help a Young carer?
If you are a Young carer, where can you get help?
So, Christmas is coming along again. Even as the Halloween stuff goes half price, the Christmas stuff is already in the shops. Children and young people are the first to be excited by Christmas every year, and with good reason - they get to receive gifts, see family and eat loads of traditional food. But some children and young people have bigger responsibilities than other young people and Christmas might be quite different for them.
Who can be a Young carer?
A young carer is person under 18 who helps to look after someone with a disability, illness, mental health condition, or drug or alcohol problem. It might be that the young person is looking after a parent, a brother or sister. All young people are probably expected to do some jobs around the home, but caring involves doing extra cooking and cleaning, or helping someone to get dressed or move around. It includes emotional as well as physical support.
Ask for help
If you are reading this as a young carer yourself, the strongest advice I can give you is this. Ask for help. The person you are caring for is not completely your responsibility. If they are an adult, they have responsibility for themselves, and the health and social care system has responsibility for both of you.
A teacher is a good person to talk about problems because if you are missing lessons or struggling, they can get you extra help. Your peers at school may not understand the pressure that you are under, but good friends will understand what you are going through and talking often helps. The school might be able to give you support to keep in touch with the person you care for during the school day, for example letting you keep your phone on, and allowing you to respond to calls. Most important, you need to ask the doctor, nurse, or social worker whose job it is to help the person you are looking after, so that they can organise more formal support at home, to free you up to do your school and college work.
Other resources
Just as some adult carers, sometimes caring can creep up on young carers too. If you spot that you or another young person has become a carer, there are specific resources you can access. There are organisations that provide advice and support to young carers, if you know someone who could do with a little help and support, you could direct them to these websites:
(For Scotland) https://www.mygov.scot/young-carer-support
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/looking-after-people/carers-help-and-support
https://www.connectingyoungcarers.org/what-we-do/advice-support.aspx
And if you know a young carer at Christmas…do what you can to include them and make this time special for them.
Find out about Carers and Caring: the One-Stop Guide here
If you would like more information, you can buy my book Dementia, the One Stop Guide or Care Homes: When, Why and How to Choose a Care Home. I am available for consultancy for families or organisations. And if you have any further queries or questions, or suggestions for something you’d like to see me write on, please contact me via the Contact Page
See my course on Dementia the One Stop Guide on Policy Hub here
