Young Carers: When Young People Have to Care for Their Relatives
If relatives fall ill, children and young people often also take on care and support tasks. However, their role is usually little perceived by the public. Now, for the first time, concrete figures are available for Switzerland: Far more children are affected than previously assumed.
When parents, siblings or grandparents become physically or mentally ill or even die, childhood ceases to be carefree. Often, children and adolescents then shoulder tasks that adults normally have to take on: they worry and care for their relatives - and sometimes they even take on nursing tasks such as administering medication or setting infusions. In most cases, not even their teachers or instructors know what they do in addition to school and training.
Young Carers: Still Little-Known Area of Research
Caring children, adolescents and young adults - known in the jargon as "young carers" and "young adult carers" - have been the central research topic of Prof. Dr. Agnes Leu and her team since 2014. Agnes Leu heads the "Young Carers" research program at Careum Research, the research institute of Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences Health.
Until now, there have been no precise figures on how many children and adolescents are affected in Switzerland. Other countries have a head start in research. In the UK, for example, research on children and young people who are carers has been going on for over 25 years. Two large national online surveys now provide reliable data for Switzerland for the first time. Thus, 3518 professionals from the education, health and social sectors provided information about what they know about "young carers" and how often they encounter children and young people with caring responsibilities in their professional context. The survey showed that professionals are still (too) little familiar with the phenomenon of "young carers". However, after the terminology was explained to them in more detail, 40 percent of respondents said they had encountered young people who fit this description in their day-to-day work.
Hardly noticeable: When trainees care for relatives at home
This is not surprising: "Young Carers" are inconspicuous in everyday life. They perceive their situation as normal and hardly ever seek help - often out of shame. Thus, they are often only noticed in everyday school life when, for example, they suffer from a lack of concentration or sleep or their school performance becomes weaker. In general, professionals would like to see more information and specialized training courses so that they can become aware of affected children and adolescents at an earlier stage and respond to them in a targeted manner.
In another representative and nationwide online survey, children aged 10 to 15 were interviewed online at 230 schools. Previously, it was assumed that the proportion of children in Switzerland who were carers was around four to five percent. Now this figure has to be corrected upwards. Almost eight percent of children and young people are caring for or looking after relatives, with slightly more girls than boys.
Urgent measures required
These results are a first important step to draw attention to the situation of young carers in Switzerland. There is an urgent need for political and social measures to ensure that young carers are better supported at school, in training and at work in the future. Careum therefore intends to continue its commitment to this cause. In various national and international follow-up projects, further research is being conducted on this important topic, and possible solutions and assistance are being developed.
Learn more at: www.careum.ch/youngcarers
