Carers Week

Hi everyone! It feels like it's been ages since I last posted anything (or really wrote anything for that matter) but hey, exams!

Anyway, this week (11th-17th June) is Carers Week, so I thought that I'd do some raising of awareness for Young Carers.

First of all, shout out to my friend for standing up in assembly to talk about this, and for all those who ran the cake stall at school (they raised £69!). She's so amazing, and most of the following information comes from her.


There are three main types of care that someone can provide- physical (e.g helping to get dressed), practical (e.g shopping) and emotional (e.g comforting them if they’re upset or anxious etc). My friend thinks that emotional is probably the hardest to deal with, and it can worry carers a lot, especially when they’re at work or school (is that person ok, has anything happened to them etc), and I have to say that I agree.

For young carers, the most common situations are looking after a parent or a sibling (or both) and there are four categories their conditions can fall into - physical (e.g cerebral palsy), mental (e.g depression or bipolar etc), long term illness (e.g epilepsy) or a substance misuse (e.g alcohol addiction).

If you are looking after a child you often worry about their future (how independent will they be, will they need a carer always etc).

 For a child looking after a parent, it feels strange as it should be the parent looking after the child and not the other way round.

But carers can be all ages and there are many adult carers who have had to give up work to care for someone.


You can find a link to the Carers Week Website here, and the link to a page about Young Carers is here. The second website has a lot of statistics, some of which are quite shocking (such as 26% of young carers have been bullied at school because of their role).

Finally, if you are a young carer and you want some support, there are various different websites. Around where I live, Centre 33 is a good place to start, or there is Kooth/Childline if you need to talk to someone. My friend also says CarersTrust (a charity) and a website called YoungSibs for people who look after siblings with a disability. At our school, there is a designated teacher that carers can go to for day-to-day problems, and every two weeks someone from Centre 33 comes in to hold one-on-one appointments and an afterschool group.

I will you all a very happy day (I'm off to go and revise Maths...yay)


*This is a very important topic, as many people do not even realise what a young carer is. Please share this with other people, to raise further awareness. Thank you! ☺️