Young Carers
What being a young carer means?
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A young carer is anyone aged 5-16 who cares, unpaid, for a family member or friend.
A young carer looks after or helps to look after someone who has an illness, learning or physical disability, a mental health illness or misuse of drugs or alcohol. It might be your mum or dad, grandparent, brother or sister or a close relative or friend.
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A young carer usually takes on practical and/or emotional caring responsibilities that would normally be expected of an adult. This means doing things like cooking, cleaning, shopping, giving medication or just talking and helping when the person you care about is feeling sad.
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Caring roles can look very different, you might be doing different things than mentioned above, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t a young carer.
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How can you get help and support?
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Looking after someone can sometimes take up a lot of time and it can sometimes be very difficult to cope with everything. Going to school, meeting up with friends and doing the things you enjoy can sometimes be hard to fit in.
If you think you might be a young carer, or you’re not too sure, and feel you need additional help and support, talk to someone you trust like your teacher at school or your doctor. They will be able to refer you to Wiltshire Council’s Young Carer team for a young carers’ assessment which will look at the support that could be offered to you and your family.
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What is a young carer assessment?
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An assessment is when an adult from the young carers team at Wiltshire council, gets to know you to understand the things you are dealing with and the impact of your caring role to see if you need some help.
Young people and parents can now self-refer for a young carer assessment. To do this, call 0300 456 0108 or email IFD@wiltshire.gov.uk.
To find out if you are a young carer, take the Carer Support Wiltshire quick quiz.
Visit Carer Support Wiltshire for lots of useful information to help you understand what caring is all about and how you can get help and support.