Young carers need to reach out for help

Wednesday 15 March 2023

Young carers are being reminded there is a safe space available to them, where they can leave their responsibilities at the door for a while.

It's not known how many people may be acting as a carer for a family member or friend, with young carers most often having to ask for help before being signposted to services which can support them.

On Young Carers Action Day, the Youth Commission is reminding anyone between the ages of 11-18 who may have extra caring responsibilities at home for a parent or sibling or anyone else in their family, that support specifically for them is available.

The Young Carers group was launched to offer respite and to give them a safe space where they can "come and just be themselves and leave their caring responsibilities at the door for a while", said Natalie Dodsworth who runs it.

Pictured: The Youth Commission offers the only dedicated help for young carers in the island.

Data is not collated locally to give an accurate estimate for how many young carers there are in the island, but pre-covid there were thought to be up to 4,000 carers of all ages across Guernsey.

In the UK, around 800,000 young people aged between five and 17 are believed to miss school because they have to care for an adult or family member.

The Youth Commission for Guernsey and Alderney said local data is unavailable "mainly because some young people may not realise they would be considered a young carer". Ms Dodsworth said instead they rely on people self-identifying as a young carer to access services.

"Currently in my group I have four young people who come to us on a regular basis. I would love to see this number grow!" she said.

"We do all sorts of fun activities both indoors and out. We do lots of creative sessions, cooking and other life skills sessions and we like to get outside and go for walks, meals, play golf, whatever the young people want to do really.

"Essentially we strive to create a safe and non-judgemental space for them to come along and relax for a little while."

A spokesperson for Health and Social Care said the States does not offer any services specifically for young carers, with any needing support being signposted to the Youth Commission.