Pictures of Young Caring

In 2007, a number of young carers took part in a photographic project that aimed to show, from the perspective of the children and young people themselves, what it is like to live with and care for a parent with serious mental illness.

After conducting a number of research studies on young carers over the years, we recognised that some children either do not want, or feel unable to take part in research studies that rely on their verbal contributions (in interviews, for example). Quite simply, some young carers do not want to talk about their experiences of caring. The aim of the Pictures of Young Caring study, funded by the ESRC, was to enable young carers to demonstrate visually the meaningful aspects of their lives when they live with and care for parents who have serious mental health problems. The intention was to facilitate a participatory approach that meant that the children themselves controlled the direction and collection of the visual data. In terms of outputs and the presentation of the photographic data, some of the children did not want their images to be accompanied by interpretative narratives, but wanted the pictures to ‘speak for themselves’.

The final published report, Pictures of Young Caring, includes more details about the participatory photographic methodology as well as the content and thematic analyses conducted and further discussion about the implications of the findings. Thus, the report lends an important contextual dimension to the viewing of this gallery of images. However, in accordance with the wishes of the children and young people who took part in the study, the photographs in the gallery can also be viewed independently and can, in their own words, ‘speak for themselves’.

The ages of the young carers who took part in the study ranged from 9 to 17 years and all the children cared long-term for a parent with serious mental health problems (including bi polar disorder, chronic depression, schizophrenia and personality disorder).

The full report, Pictures of Young Caring can be found and downloaded from the Young Carers Research Group website here.

The collections are below - please click on a link to view a slide show which will open in a new window.

Adam's images.	Annie's images	Chisomo's images	Conor(Ben's) images
Emma's images	Fiona's images	Frenchesca's images	Karina's images
Keleigh's images	Lucy's images	Matt's images	Shannon A's images
Shannon B's images		Taylor's images