Young Adult Carers – FAQs

Q. Am I a young carer?

A. If you are under 18 and are looking after someone at home with a medical condition, then yes. That person could be one of your parents, a grandparent, brother or sister. They could have a long-term illness or condition; they could have learning difficulties, a disability, mental health problem or misuse drugs or alcohol.

Q. Who are Young Adult Carers?

A. The Young Adult Carers project supports people between the ages of 18 – 25 who take responsibility for the care of another person (usually a relative) who:

Has a physical disability
Has a learning disability
Has an ongoing serious health condition
Is elderly or frail
Has a mental health problem
Has an alcohol/drug addiction
Has HIV/AIDS

Q. What do Young Adult Carers do?

A Young Adult Carer may carry out any of the following tasks as part of their caring role:

Personal care, such as bathing and dressing.
Domestic tasks, such as shopping, cleaning and cooking.
General care, such as assisting with mobility and medication.
Emotional support, such as helping others feel ok, listening and providing company.

They do all sorts of things, like getting younger brothers or sisters ready and taking them to school, doing the housework and getting the shopping. They could help with dressing or bathing the cared for person, lifting them, sorting out and giving medicines or giving emotional support by comforting or listening or spending their spare time keeping Granddad company. Whatever jobs young adult carers do, they have a lot more to deal with than your “average” young person.

Q. Is it OK to feel angry or upset?

A. Absolutely! Young Adult Carers are human just like everyone else and it is healthy to be angry sometimes. What isn’t healthy is to bottle it up and not talk about your feelings. If you are having problems with talking about how you feel, we may be able to arrange Lifeskills courses which talk about feelings and stress or there is the option to be referred to someone to speak to if you have deeper issues that need sorting out. You could always let your GP, College Tutor or Student Services or someone else who you trust know about how you feel.

Q. What do I do in an emergency?

A. The most important thing is to keep yourself safe – if you are not safe, you cannot help anyone else!

Next, if in doubt, call 999 for an ambulance, police or fire service. If you have a good reason for thinking that there is an emergency, it is okay to call 999, even if things turn out not to be as bad as you thought.

If there is an emergency that you think could happen to your family, maybe there is someone you can talk to about making a plan, just in case?

Q. How can Young Adult Carers help me?

A. We can help you with all sorts of things, such as letting you know your rights as a carer, speaking on your behalf if you want us to, helping with Benefits and one to one support. We are organising Young Adult Carers Groups and activities so that you can have a bit of a break from things, make new friends and most importantly HAVE FUN! We can also work with colleges and employers to make sure that you get the support you need to do the best you can. We also have plans to set up a Young Adult Carers Facebook group.

Q. What about transport to activities?

A. We realise that not every family has their own transport so we can arrange transport or help towards the cost of transport to activities by volunteer drivers or public transport. Sometimes, such as a large activity involving a substantial number of young adult carers, we may ask those parents with vehicles to help us with transport.

Q. Will you need to see us all as a family?

A. No not at this point, not if you don’t want us to, you’re 18+ you are an adult and this is the bit where we talk to you about who we are, what we do and how we can help. We work in partnership with you to tailor our service to your needs, however our support worker would like to meet your family and/or cared for (who ever is relevant) later to carry out an assessment to see if we can help you all. This allows us to work out the various types and ways support could be put in place. The Support Worker would then make this follow-up appointment to meet your cared for.

Q. Do I/they have to live with the cared for?

A. No you don’t, you may, but this is not always the case. You could be looking after a Grand Parent who still lives in their own home for example.

Q. Do I/they have to provide care daily?

A. Again no, you may, but this is not always the case either. You could, for example, care for someone whose condition has episode when you need to provide care. These could be daily, weekly, monthly and not always at regular times either. It could mean for an example daily care this week and then nothing for a month, then popping in just once a week for a while. The term you may hear is regular and substantial.

Q. What does Regular and Substantial mean?

A. Regular simply put means that the person you care for needs your support more than once or twice or for a short period of time in total, but you do not have to provide daily care (see above). For an example, if your grandmother had a cold for a week and you popped in to see if she needed anything but she was other wise fit and healthy you would not be seen as a carer but, if she was frail and housebound and needed you more often over a longer period you would be seen as providing regular care, even if this meant just popping in once a week.

Substantial is a bit trickier to answer and understand, but again in simple terms it means how much your role as a carer impacts on you and your life. This impact includes your time and your wellbeing. If you are caring for your frail, housebound grandmother who lives in her own home a few miles away, to use that example again, you would constantly be worrying if she is ok, has she fallen? This alone would mean your caring role has a substantial impact on your life, you are worried. If this meant that you popped in a couple of times a week it would be seen as having more impact. If you had to go around everyday and stay with her all day then the impact is greater again.

Q. What can I do if I need some time out?

A. We can help you to find the resources, money and support to get some time for yourself and still ensure you cared for is looked after. This could be for a respite break or an hour or two for a regular activity or to meet friends. This would be done on an individual basis looking into your need and requirements.

Q. Who can I ask for information about my cared-for’s condition?

A. Your doctor or practice nurse should be able to give you general information about most illnesses and conditions. NHS Direct should be able to help as well on 0845 46 47. There are a lot of very useful websites which will give you more specific information and will probably have a helpline number or email address that you can contact for direct questions. If you are having problems finding information then you can always contact the Carers Service and we’ll help you as much as we can.

Q. I am worried about money – what can I do?

A. We can help you in several ways so stay calm, don’t keep it to yourself and get in touch with us, we will do all we can. Some of the typical ways we can help are outlined below so read on, but we can also help you by putting you in touch with other specialist people that can help such as the Citizens Advice Bureau CAB.

Q. How do I claim financial help and Benefits for me and/or my cared for?

A. This is a complicated area but we are here to help.

There are several benefits available for you and your cared for. When we meet you and your cared for we will look at your circumstances and the options available. We will help you by providing information and with completing forms. There may also be other financial help available for you that doesn’t come through the benefits system and we will help with these as well if we can.

Q. What Benefits are available for me and my cared for?

A. For your cared for benefits may include, Disability Living Allowance, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit.

For you there is Carers Allowance, Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance.

You are also entitled to a Carers Assessment.

There are several links on our website to Benefit Departments, Council Departments information if you want to look into these further.

Q. What is a Carers Assessment?

A. There is much more information in our section on Carers Assessments but in short, a Carer’s Assessment is your opportunity to tell social services about the things that could make caring easier for you.

The Carers Assessment is your right. It is not a test to see how good you are, but used to identify any support that can be put in place to enable you to continue to care if you want to.

You should feel free to talk about anything that affects you as a carer during your assessment, but to get you started; here are some of the more common areas for discussion:

if you are struggling to find any/enough time for yourself,
whether you’re able to get out and about,
the affect caring is having on your health,
how it’s affecting your relationships with others,
whether the person you’re caring for is getting enough help,
sources for additional help via local or national support organisations,
and any employment concerns you may have
different types of assessments

Carers can ask for an assessment of their own needs when the person they are caring for is having an assessment, or re-assessment, of their needs. It does not restrict Carers Assessments according to age, meaning that young carers can have an assessment under legislation, remember it is your right.

The way that you can get a Carer’s Assessment will depend on your circumstances. If you have any questions you can contact us or you can contact your local social services directly.

Q. What if I’m struggling to cope with College and being a carer?

A. Speak to your Student Services, learning mentors or lecturer and explain what your situation is. Some schools/colleges have Young Carer groups which meet at lunchtime or after hours or they may have someone who is nominated to support young adult carers in college. If your college doesn’t have any of this, talk to them about it or why not ask us to look into it for you, we are trying to get as many colleges to provide support as we can, or even set up your own? Our support worker can offer Education Liaison and go into colleges to raise awareness and speak on your behalf as well. If you want us to speak to your college, let us know.

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