What are the effects of being a carer at an early age

Being a young carer affects a young person’s education:

• Many young carers take increasing amounts of time off school.
• Many young carers leave school without any qualifications.
• Bullying. One project found that almost every young carer it was supporting had been bullied.

And it affects their whole lives:

• Some protect vulnerable parents from their negative feelings at home, but cannot keep them in at school. The real reasons for a young carer’s behaviour are rarely discovered until it is too late to help them change.
• Physical ill health such as tiredness from caring during the night or back injuries from lifting an adult.
• Stress and worry. Young carers experience traumatic life changes such as bereavement, family break-up, losing income and housing or seeing the effects of an illness or addiction affect their loved one.
• Mental health problems.

Young carers who only provide emotional support are just as vulnerable. They might:

• Stay in to be there for someone when others are going out and socialising.
• Deal with the aftermath of an overdose attempt or drinking binge.
• Worry about someone while at school or out of the house.