Young Carers

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Young Carers In North Tyneside
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The Princess Royal Trust for Carers North
Tyneside Carers Centre
Based at YMCA in North Shields Work with children
and young people across North Tyneside who are
young carers
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A young carer is . . .
a child or young person who helps to look after
someone in their family who has got a disability,
an illness, or a mental health, alcohol or drug
problem
Government estimates 175 000 young carers in the
UK North Tyneside estimates 770 young carers
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A young carer does a lot of things to help their
family . . .
Help with bathing, dressing, toilet
Staying in, feeling responsible, listening
On top of other caring roles
Medication, mobility
Cooking, shopping, cleaning
Most young carers figures quoted in this
presentation are from Young Carers in the UK the
2004 report (Dearden and Becker) www.lboro.ac.uk
www.bham.ac.uk
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Who do young carers care for?
Just under a third care for a brother or sister,
although many who care for parents also take on
child care.
A small number of young carers look after a
grandparent or someone else.
12 of young carers look after more than one
person.
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Who do young carers care for?
Often, there is more than one condition e.g
depression and alcohol misuse. One in ten young
carers care for more than one person.
250 000 UK children live with parental substance
misuse. 920 000 have alcoholic parents.
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Young Carers have told us

• Whats not good about being a young carer
• Getting up early
• Being fed up and tired
• Feeling helpless
• Being stared funny looks from friends and other
  people

• Whats good about being a young carer
• Seeing the rewards you get from caring
• Spending time with the person you care for
• Making the person you care for happy

Teachers often dont know why their pupil is
always late and yawning and why school work isnt
completed
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What do young carers ask us for?
Getting teachers to be more aware of your
feelings and how hard it is to do coursework with
other things to worry about
To do the fun things everyone else does
We want
To keep up with school work
Not to feel so worried and guilty
Help to cope with stress
The bullying to stop
Young carers rarely ask to stop caring
altogether, but they do need choice
Meet with other young carers
The person we care for to get better
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North Tyneside Carers Centre supports young
carers with ..
Clubs, activities, residentials
Counselling and mentoring
Linking families with the services they need
Advocacy on behalf of young carers and their
families
Raising awareness and offering support in schools
Individual and group grants
In 2008, we supported 320 young carers in North
Tyneside
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• Info
• Advice via email
• Hosted chat sessions
• Pre-moderated message board
• Links to searchable database of projects
• Professionals section

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How to get in touch.
Mick Thompson Debbie Smart North Tyneside Carers
Centre 3rd floor YMCA building, North
Shields enquiries_at_ntcarers.co.uk www.youngcarers.
net www.carers.org/ntyneside 0191 200 1111