#CareForMeToo
Today, Thursday 31 January, is Young Carer’s Awareness Day, the fifth such awareness day organised by the Carer’s Trust.
The purpose of the day is to campaign for greater support and raise public awareness of the challenges faced by the many young people aged under 18 who help to look after a friend or someone in their family, who is ill, disabled or misuses drugs and/or alcohol.
Essentially, young carers are children who have responsibilities you would usually expect an adult to have.
There are approximately 800,000 secondary school pupils in England with a caring role. This means there are six young carers in every secondary school classroom. The average age of a young carer is 13, but one in 10 are aged under 10.
What might a young carer do?
- Practical tasks, such as cooking, housework or shopping
- Physical care, such as helping someone out of bed
- Emotional support, such as talking to someone who is distressed
- Personal care, such as helping someone dress
- Managing the family budget and collecting prescriptions
- Helping to give medicine
- Helping someone communicate
- Looking after brothers and sisters.
Young carers often miss out on opportunities to spend time with their friends because their caring role means they have to be at home. As such, being a young carer can, unsurprisingly, have a big impact on a young person’s development and mental health.
Young carers are more likely to have anxiety or depression than other young people their age, with 50% admitting to feeling stressed, and 46% stating that they often feel lonely as a result of their caring role. Young carers are also more than twice as likely as their peers not to be in education, training or employment when they leave school.
We have issued a special postmark to celebrate Young Carer’s Awareness Day.
Click here for more information about young carers as well as the #CareForMeToo campaign that aims to raise awareness about mental health and improve support for young carers.
Parents & Carers
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Please visit the Parents & Carers steering group homepage to access a range of resources available to support you if you are caring for others.
If you would like to share your story, learn more or get involved, please contact us at parents.and.carers@royalmail.com.
