App for Carers – Your Input Needed

West London Mental Health Trust is looking at developing a mobile app(iphone, blackberry, android etc) for carers, friends and family of someone with a mental health issue. They're currently undergoing a
feasibility study to see firstly, if it's something people would use, and secondly, if so, what you would like it to do. The app may have information about:

- understanding their loved ones behaviour
- coping techniques
- what to do in a crisis, and
- managing their own mood and stress level

These are of course initial suggestions, however they may alter depending on the results of the survey. This survey has six questions and will take approximately two minutes to complete.

Carers can complete the survey at: www.surveymonkey.com/s/carersapp

For more information please contact:
Megan Singleton
Involvement and Membership Manager
West London Mental Health Trust
P. 020 8354 8325
Uxbridge Road
Southall | Middlesex | UB1 3EU

megan.singleton@wlmht.nhs.uk or 020 8354 8325.

BOOK NOW  - Young Carers Festival 2011 - Friday 24th to Sunday 26th June YMCA Fairthorne Manor and The Children’s Society

The theme for this year is “Resilience”, the Voice Zone will focus on ways in which projects can work to increase the resilience of young carers, to enable them to face their challenges. The theme also reflects that projects have to be resilient regarding the challenging financial situation, and in recognition of this, we are pleased to be able to hold the cost at 2010 prices.

Headlines for 2011

Early Booking Discount
In these times of tighter financial constraints, please make sure your group benefits from the lowest possible cost by
confirming your booking by Thursday 28th April 2011.

Click  here  to download booking  forms   http://www.ymca-fg.org/UserFiles/Young%20Carers%20Festival%202011%20Pack.pdf

Cick here  for YouTube Clips of YCF 2010 http://www.youngcarer.com/showPage.php?file=20096211421.htm

Support for Work with Young Adult Carers –
Free guide and training from NIACE

The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (England and Wales) – NIACE - has produced a RUBLE (Really Useful Book of Learning and Earning) guide for young adult carers and staff who work with them.

The RUBLE guide for Young Adult Carers 2011 is designed for direct use by young adult carers aged 16-25 and is intended to be a supportive and motivating resource that helps young adult carers progress in positive ways. It includes activities around goal setting, identifying skills, space for recording positive statements, health issues, volunteering, job hunting and managing money. Monthly diary pages are also included as well as short case studies from young adult carers.

The staff guidance booklet also includes a range of materials (which can be reproduced as required) for use by a range of practitioners, professionals who work with young adult carers.

During April- July 2011, NIACE will also be offering a FREE half-day training session for practitioners interested in improving and developing their work with young adult carers.

The RUBLE guides can be downloaded free of charge from the NIACE website at: http://www.niace.org.uk/current-work/young-adult-carers.
For paper copies of the RUBLE guides and for more information about the training session please contact Emma Brown: emma@niace.org.uk or telephone 0116 2859694.

Young Carers’ Mental Well-Being Compromised by Long- Term Caring

New research from the YCRG and Manchester Carers Forum has found that the longer children take on caring responsibilities in the home the more damaging the affects of caring can be for children’s emotional and mental well-being.

The study, which was conducted by the Manchester Carers Forum (MCF) in conjunction the YCRG, used in depth interviews and psychological measures among 50 young carers living in Manchester.
Some young carers develop coping strategies to deal with the psychological effects of caring, but others, in particular those children who have been caring for long periods of time, for example two years or more, do not cope well. Some children in the study had been caring for 10 years.

Dr Jo Aldridge , Director of the YCRG explains: “Long term and disproportionate caring activity among children adversely affects their health and well-being. They are less optimistic about the future and have lower self esteem. We also know from recent research that there are far more young carers than was previously estimated, which means more children are likely to be adversely affected by long term caring responsibilities.”

Findings from the study highlighted that some young carers who are not providing care for prolonged periods cope better with the demands of caring; female young carers are more likely than males to be adversely affected by caring; and all carers in the 14-17 age group who had been caring for two years or more had lower self esteem and less interest in new things and developing relationships with others.

“Our findings clearly show that children should not be caring over long periods of time without help and support and that it is essential to intervene early in family life in order to prevent children taking on inappropriate or long term caring responsibilities,” said Dave Williams, MCF Project Manager. “Whilst the research indicates resilience on the part of young carers, we must ensure that disproportionate levels of caring responsibility do not hinder the life chances of our young people.”

The study was funded by the Manchester Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

For a summary of the study’s key findings please click here.

For further information about MCF please visit www.manchestercarersforum.org.uk

"Young carers in the news - new BBC survey shows prevalence of young caring among secondary school age children is much higher than indicated in Census Data. There are now estimated to be around 700,000 young carers in the UK."

Click here for the link.

Barnardo’s Bolton service have published a resource pack on “Family Group Conferencing and Young Carers” which is available for sale at £10 via Barnardo’s in Bolton (including postage and packing).For more info click here.

CAITLIN’S WISH’ by Victoria Taylor.
Illustrations by Claire Wiles.
Caitlin’s Wish is a storybook written for children who have a disabled or sick family member, relative or friend. It is a magical fairytale with a twist. Enabling young carers to see their role from a different perspective, and enabling those not affected by disability to get an insight into what being a young carer is really like!

Victoria wrote it for her daughter, Adele-Caitlin when she found it hard to come to terms with her father’s disability. Adele-Caitlin was only 2 yrs old when her father was diagnosed with a rare brain condition called Intracranial Hypertension (IH). She was so young that she just accepted the situation. It was only when she went to school that she started to compare her life with others and realised that her life was different. She felt so sad and isolated by her situation, but was too young to access any support. (There is very little support for young carers under the age of 8 yrs old.)

For more information on Caitlin's Wish click here.

And for some readers comments click here.

Hidden Voices: An
Exploratory Study of Young Carers in Cork

A recently published research study on the experiences of  current and former young carers in Ireland illustrates the impacts of caring on various aspects of their lives. The findings of this small-scale, exploratory study  point to the long term impact of caring on these young people's health and quality of life, education, employment, risk of poverty and social relationships. Young carers who aren’t known to service providers and professionals in health, social care and education are unable to live their lives as their peers do, and this research examines the impact of these factors on children’s lives.

The research report begins with a review of the international literature on definitions and perspectives on young carers, followed by a brief overview of existing Irish research and policy.  It concludes with some commentary on the issues arising from the research findings for policy and service provision.

Dr Cathal O'Connell, Dr Joe Finnerty, Ms Orla Egan,  Hidden Voices: An
Exploratory Study of Young Carers in Cork is available online in the
Combat Poverty Agency Research Working Paper series here.

This is the first UK research study to provide an in-depth picture of the numbers, needs, experiences and service responses to young adult carers aged 16-24. There are almost 300,000 caregivers aged 16-24 years in the UK with a quarter of a million between aged 18-24.

The study provides new insights into the number of young adult carers in the UK, the nature of their caring responsibilities, their experiences of school, further and higher education; factors affecting their relationships; their concerns about money, jobs and carers; their aspirations; the challenges of leaving home and gaining independence.

The study, conducted by Young Carers International Research and Evaluation at the University of Nottingham, draws on original data, including in-depth interviews with carers aged 18-24 years, focus groups with carers aged 16-17, surveys of young and adult carers services and census data. It has implications for all those working within universal and specialist services that have contact with young adults particularly in schools, colleges, universities, careers services, health settings, children’s services, youth support, and services for young and adult carers.

Key findings from the study:

Analysis of the Census data 2001 shows that around 61,000 young carers in the UK are aged between 16 and 17. Nineteen per cent of them spend more than 20 hours each week caring and seven per cent spend up to 50 hours a week in this role. The study found:

• Young carers (aged 16-17) wanted to go out more but caring and poverty precluded this.
• Although some found an understanding attitude from their school others had been ‘punished’ as a consequence of being late or missing school due to caring
• Parental encouragement and a positive attitude towards education influenced young carers’ school attendance and achievement.
• Many were supplied with inadequate careers and job search advice.
• They wanted more information and advice about further and higher education and funding opportunities.
• They had little understanding about local support services.
• They were anxious about who would support them once they turn 18

There are more than 229,300 young adult carers aged 18 to 24 in the UK. Nineteen per cent of them provide more than 20 hours care a week and 12 per cent provide care for more than 50 hours a week. The study found:

• Many provide ‘emotional’ as well as intimate care – helping with bathing and washing.
• A third reported ‘strained relationships’ with the person they supported
• Many were unaware of their legal rights and entitlements.
• Support from college staff was significant.
• Choices for higher education were compromised by the need for either ‘distance caring’ (returning home at weekend or holidays) or having to attend local universities to balance care and study by continuing to live at home.
• Some young adult carers were NEET or had compromised their plans for further study because of their caring responsibilities.
• Most were living in families reliant on state benefits that severely restricted their opportunities.
• Leaving home was complex.
• Needing to care often mediated their career aspirations and future plans.

The report makes a series of recommendations and concludes that “Developing services and interventions for this group will be a sound investment for the future, promoting the positive aspects of caring and reducing the negative outcomes, with all the associated costs and benefits these have for individuals, society and the economy”.

The True Colours Trust in association with The Princess Royal Trust for Carers funded the study. The report is free to download from www.carers.org or available to order for £10 from alison.haigh@nottingham.ac.uk

Dedicated to the One I Love...
Documentary photographers Liz Lock & Mishka Henner spent two months working with twelve carers aged 13 to 16, in Greater Manchester, gathering anecdotes, personal reflections and visual testimonies of their lives looking after loved ones in mental or physical need. To view a slide show of the photographic exhibition, called 'Dedicated to the One I Love', please click on the following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/documentoldham/DedicatedToTheOneILove

'Pictures of Young Carers' - PDF document now availiable to download - See downloadable publications.

This research project has been graded ‘Outstanding’ by the Economic and Social Research Council – the highest grade possible for any research project funded by the ESRC. Based on evaluations of the end of award report, the Outstanding grade reflects evaluators’ judgements that the project makes an ‘important contribution to the development of the subject and that it makes an exceptional research contribution well above average or very high in relation to the level of the award’.

Findings from the research study are presented and discussed in the downloadable document – Pictures of Young Caring.

Queen’s Anniversary Prize

The Queen’s Anniversary Prize (2004) for Higher and Further Education has been awarded to Loughborough (Department of Social Sciences) in recognition of its outstanding and widely respected work in evaluating and helping develop social policy-related programmes, including young carers. The prizes are awarded biennially in recognition of outstanding educational achievement in areas of service and benefit to the nation. Our thanks to all of you who have supported us over the years. Without your contribution and cooperation in research studies, evaluations etc and without the participation of the children, young people and their families with whom you work, the research would not have been possible.

To read the article click here. 303 KB, Needs Adobe Acrobat Reader - which you can download free from here