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Young Carers Training Event
Banks Stadium
Monday February 4th 2008
“Young but not carefree”
Case Studies
Feedback by Delegates
The following case studies are examples of how young carers undertake a wide range of roles and responsibilities that can differ from those of other young people.
The delegates needed to think about what the young carer might have to do in each situation in terms of offering physical and emotional support. This might include the sorts of tasks that need to be carried out in the home such as help with domestic chores or personal care. Other aspects of the situation also need to be considered such as whether the young carer is dealing with the situation on their own or has additional support. Also does the age of the carer determine what their responsibilities might be?
The delegates were also asked to consider how school might be able to help.
N.B. Please note that not all young carers will require safeguarding or child concern.
Case Study 1
Luke
Luke is helping to care for his younger brother who is disabled and has physical and learning disabilities. In the beginning he simply had to watch and play with Joshua and keep him out of harm’s way, but as Joshua gets older, bigger and heavier, Luke’s help is needed more and more.
Luke’s father works away from home and his mother does not have the strength to lift Joshua alone. Luke gets up early to get Joshua ready before he goes home early for the same reason.
Luke is eleven years old.
Response:
Luke may have to be at home a great deal in order to “keep an eye” on Joshua. He also has to be involved with lifting him and may have to help with dressing and feeding him. He may have to help keep Joshua occupied with activities. He may also have to provide emotional support for his mum if she feels low.
Delegates response:
Luke will be involved in lifting and intimate care.
- He could be responsible for getting him ready in the morning
- May have to slip into a father like role as Dad is always away
- Might also have to look after himself, cooking, washing, and household chores.
- He may have no-one he can relate to at home
- He may have to provide some emotional support to Mum.
Impact on Luke:
Luke may feel physically and emotionally drained
- Tired
- Lack of social skills – he has little or no social life e.g. footie
- His academic achievement may be seriously affected
- He may be resentful
- His homework suffers
- Missing / late for school
- Missing out on attention
- Feeling of isolation
- Teachers may not be aware of Luke’s predicament and not make allowances.
- Enlist the support of a Parental Support Advisor
- Offer counselling
Case Study 2
Asma
Asma’s father has multiple sclerosis and his condition is gradually getting worse. Her mother doesn’t work so that she can stay at home and look after him. Both parents have limited English spoken and written.
Asma who is 15 is the oldest of three children.
Response:
Asma may need to support her family and help her mother with cooking, cleaning and looking after the younger children. She would not need to be responsible for her father’s personal care as her mother is able to carry out such tasks. Asma may need to help her mother interact with the “outside world” dealing with tasks such as letters and bills.
Delegates response:
Asma will be involved in translating of documents, writing for the parents, completion of forms etc.
- May need to accompany parents to Doctors, Social Services etc.
- Supervise the younger children
- Help with housework
- Parents evening roles etc.
- Helping lifting / intimate care
- Take on the role of a secondary carer
Impact on Asma:
Emotionally drained
- No social life – resentful
- Academic attainment may be affected
- Extra responsibility will lead to her being tired, stressed
- Could be late for school
- Could miss school
- May have low self esteem
- School may be able to refer her to support groups
Case Study 3
Lauren
Lauren is eight years old. Lauren is the only child. Her mother has an addiction to drugs and since separating from Lauren’s father has found it very difficult coping on her own, even though Lauren’s father does visit regularly.
Response:
Lauren is only eight and therefore should have limited responsibilities. She might have to get herself ready for school and provide simple food for herself and sometimes her mother. She may feel responsible for keeping the house tidy and may try to provide some level of emotional support to her mother.
Delegates response:
Make sure mum’s O.K. every day
- Lauren is very vulnerable – drugs in house, possible dealers, health at risk
- Getting up by herself / getting dressed (correct uniform, clean) / to school on time.
- Money for shopping, cooking, providing meals or just food
- Not sure of the depth of dad’s involvement
Impact on Lauren
- Lateness / attendance at school
- Tired – lack of attention / attention seeking – non participation
- Hygiene
- Homework – falling behind, under achieving
- Problems with peers
- Help from school could be:-
Child Concern meetings, making agreed allowances – work, food,
clothes
- Provide nurturing environment
- Provide assisted process after school
Case Study 4
Jo
Jo is fourteen and lives with her mother and her elder brother and sister. Her mother has schizophrenia. When her mum’s condition worsens, Jo stays with her grandparents for a little while as her brother and sister are not very supportive. Jo’s grandparents live 3 miles away and do not have transport. Jo often worries whether her mum is having a bad day, or her condition is deteriorating.
Response:
Jo or possibly her brother or sister may be responsible for checking their mother has taken her medication, also providing her a level of emotional support. Depending on how much work her siblings are prepared to do within the home she may need to undertake personal care, cooking and cleaning. Jo may need access to a telephone while at school to check how her mother is, especially while living temporarily with her grandparents.
Delegates response:
- Jo’s residence can alter very quickly
- Jo may be transient between schools, or have to negotiate a 3 mile journey
- Her time keeping, or school attendance may be affected
- She may be stigmatised because of her mother’s condition
- There may be drug issues
- Communication may be a problem as Jo is transient between homes.
How school can help
- Support with schizophrenia information
- Provide her with access to phone mum to stop her worrying
- Offer counselling
- Help with transport to school
Case Study 5
Jill
Jill is 17 and is studying in the 6th form at school, and she lives with her parents and grandmother. Her gran has Alzheimer’s disease which means she is very forgetful and sometimes struggles to wash and dress herself, and sometimes wanders off into the street and forgets where she lives.
Jill’s parents both work long hours.
Response:
Jill may provide personal care for her grandmother when her mother’s not at home. She may feel responsible for her grandmother’s safety or just reminding her to eat regularly. She may just provide company to her grandmother and give her emotional support if confused or upset. Jill may need additional help that she can call on if her gran wanders off.
Delegates response:
- Would invite Jill’s parents into School to discuss the situation.
- Highlight to the parents of the emotional strain that Jill is suffering.
- Make parents aware of help that maybe available.
- Invite learning mentors to be involved.
- Invite Parent support assistant to go along, - there maybe issues around parents abdicating their responsibilities.
Case Study 6
David
David is 12 years old and lives with his father who has M.E.; as a result he is unable to work and rarely leaves the house. Social Services have arranged for some support in the form of a care worker who cleans the house and does some shopping once a week. David’s dad gets physically exhausted very easily which gets him down, but he can care for himself and prepare meals. Sometimes David feels anxious as to how dad is getting on while he is at school.
Response:
David might do any housework and shopping that is not done by the care worker or any other everyday tasks outside the home. He may feel he needs to stay at home to keep his dad company and provide emotional support if his dad’s feeling low.
Delegates response:
- David’s dad will be very tired; therefore David will be in a supporting role.
- David is going to have to acquire a lot of patience to cope with his dad.
- Dad needs a lot of emotional support.
- David will need to understand his dad’s physical care needs, and be very vigilant around him.
- School could offer David support by access to a telephone, so he can check up on dad.
- Expect school to be able to offer support to David by homework club.
- Concerns that David’s care responsibilities will affect his focus at school.
- School will need to identify David’s needs and enlist help from other agencies, i.e. youth club projects, young carer’s project, and respite in holiday time.
Case Study 7
Jenny
Jenny is six years old and lives with her parents and disabled grandmother. Jenny’s grandmother has difficulty in feeding herself and her mobility is restricted. As Jenny’s parents intend to have another child the family believe their daughter will have to help out more in the future.
Response:
Jenny is only six and therefore should have appropriate responsibilities for her age. She may provide company to her grandmother and could fetch items that are safe for her to handle. Gradually her responsibilities may increase as she gets older; currently Jenny’s parents need to look for support from elsewhere.
Delegates response:
- Jenny could end up with caring for either grandmother or younger sibling.
- Jenny is too young to cope in any way with cooking, washing and cleaning.
- Grandmother can be left alone for short spells, and Jenny can keep her grandmother company.
- Danger that parents can use Jenny to keep her grandmother company, which will affect her attendance at school.
- Need to look at whether personal care for Jenny is in jeopardy.
Designated teacher:
- Monitor appearance, welfare look at social groups for Jenny to attend.
- Support parents i.e. home visit
- Involve child concern, liaise with various support agencies.
Case Study 8
Winston
Winston is 14 lives with his mother and elder brother. His brother, Michael, has autism and due to his condition finds it difficult to cope with unfamiliar people and situations. Michael has no sense of danger and is liable to wander off; he also has difficulty in communicating with others as he has very little language skills. Winston’s mother works as a cleaner in the evenings.
Response:
Winston may have to be responsible for keeping Michael safe when his mum is at work. He may have to act as an “interpreter” for Michael. Winston may be unable to participate in normal social activities, such as going out with friends, as he needs to be at home. He might not have much time for homework as he needs to be looking after Michael. It is also likely that he is unable to have friends home because Michael doesn’t like strangers.
Delegates response:
- Winston is the main / sole carer when mum is at work.
- Cope with behaviour of Michael / safety if he wanders off.
- No social life, alone, frustrated and bored. He could be angry with his brother and parents for placing him in this position.
- No chance to do homework.
- Tired, he may have late nights, or interrupted sleep.
- He may need to prepare food and drinks for Michael.
- He may need to administer medication.
- Behaviour of Michael may be bad or totally out of control at times.
- What support does Winston get from Mum.
Designated teacher:
- Need to identify him.
- Monitor attendance and punctuality.
- Make him aware of support in school.
- Identify help with work, signpost him to other agencies.
- Talk to parents about Winston’s needs.
- Advise about Parent support group in school.
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