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Young Carers of Parents with Mental Illness
Tip Sheet for Service Providers
What are “young carers”?
Young carers are children and young people under 19 who provide, or intend to provide, personal care, assistance or support to another family member with an illness or disability on a regular basis. Their relative may be a parent, grandparent, sometimes a sibling or occasionally a friend. Their family member’s disabilities may be physical, sensory, emotional or learning impairment, long-term illness, HIV, drug or alcohol dependence or mental health problems.
In many families, children contribute to family care and well-being as a part of normal family life. A young carer is a child who is responsible for primary or secondary caring that may include carrying out significant or substantial caring tasks and assuming a level of responsibility that would normally be expected of an adult. Caring tasks can involve physical or emotional care, or taking responsibility for someone’s safety or well being.
Children of parents with mental illness often care for younger siblings in the home, perform many adult housekeeping tasks and sometimes feel responsible for symptom or medication monitoring, as well as “suicide watch” of their parents when they are ill. They are often referred to as “invisible children” because their external competency hides their missing emotional needs from adults who give them praise for their "responsible" behaviour.
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