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Are you under 18 and look after or help look after someone? Are you a Young Carer?
Young Carers are affected by a disability or illness in the family. It doesn't have to be a parent. It could be a brother, sister, grandparent or other relative. The help you give could be shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry and managing the family budget. Or you may provide nursing care, such as giving medication and helping someone move around the house.
It may be that you give your time to sit with someone for company and listen to their problems. You could feel unable to bring friends home and you may worry about someone when you are away from them.
You may not do any of these things. But if you feel affected by someone's disability or illness, whether it is physical, a mental health problem, HIV, AIDS, drug or alcohol issues, you may be a Young Carer.
Although you might feel as if you are the only one in your situation, you might be interested to know that there are at least 175,000 young carers in the UK.
Although everyone’s situation is special to them and their family, many young carers have similar feelings and experiences. You are not different or strange. You might feel proud of what you do at home or you might feel angry, sad or frustrated. You may feel all of these things at different times. You might feel that your friends or others don’t understand what you’re going through. Coping with your feelings on your own can be tough.
There are different workers and services who might be able to help you or your family. Examples are your School Health Adviser, Play and Youth Workers, Teachers, Connexions, Learning Mentors, Social Workers, charities, Counsellors, helplines and websites.
If you want to talk to someone about how you're feeling you can call Childline on 0800 1111. There are a number of organisations that can help you and we've listed links to their websites below.
Young Carers Initiative
Support for young carers and their family across the UK
Young Carers
This site has chat a discussion boards where you can talk to people about caring and anything else you're worried about.
RipRap
A website for teenagers who have a parent who has cancer.
NCH Help for Young Carers
The NCH offers support and advice for young carers.
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