Young carer awareness sessions - Hume school students |
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For some young people, managing the demands of school, peer pressure and community expectations are hard enough. Imagine the added pressure you would feel if you also had the responsibility of caring for someone in your family who was chronically ill. A young carer is a child or young person under 25 years who provides support for a family member who has a chronic illness, disability, mental health problem or who is frail aged. Unfortunately, their role as a carer can sometimes impact on their personal development and social connections and their capacity to manage at school.
Villa Maria’s Carer Support Program supports young carers in the Hume region of north eastern Victoria to access services and information responsive to their needs and provides education, workshops and counselling.
Sarah Weijers joined the Villa Maria Northern Community Services office in Wangaratta in October 2009 as a Community Engagement and Liaison Worker. Sarah, who has a teaching background, worked with Trish Deakin, another former teacher, to develop a teaching resource for primary school students (and teachers) in Years 5 and 6 to increase awareness of the plight of young carers and to enhance their access to available support services. Schools in the local area were invited to participate in the program throughout Term Two and pending its success, the program will be adapted for secondary schools.
Sarah works collaboratively with Trish Deakin, who is based in the Shepparton office, and with other Northern Community Services team members to ensure that students receive information relating to caring roles in the community and the support networks available to them in their area. It is hoped that local teachers will also be able to better identify young carers already in their classes. Early feedback from schools is encouraging.
Villa Maria runs Young Carer Workshops, receiving referrals from schools, Mental Illness Fellowship and Centrelink social workers. Through arts-based activities or activities that enhance life skills (such as cooking and budgeting), we assist young carers to discuss their emotions and the difficulties they experience as carers, to build self-esteem and to create on-going networks of support with other young carers.
The program includes art therapy activities, the ‘Horses for Hope’ program and supported group discussion. These are activities designed to help young people to develop skills in a safe and therapeutic environment for self-expression beyond the life of the program.
Leigh, aged 17 years, who participated in the young carer program last year, said: “It’s a really good course. It was good to talk to the other kids. You know where they’re coming from and they know what you’re going through. The kids at school don’t really understand.”
Another young carer, Jessica, aged 15 years, said: “It was one of the best experiences. It was just nice to find people you had something in common with. Like, they knew what you went through.”
To find out about the Young Carers program T: 1800 052 222 or E:
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