There are 700,000 young carers, and an estimated 370,000 young adult carers in the UK. These are people aged as low as eight to the age of 25 who care for loved ones whose lives are crippled by illness. Rianna can be located within those numbers. Now in her early 20s, Rianna has been a caregiver to her mother for over ten years. We\u2019re sitting in her university library. It\u2019s here that we begin a conversation that provides insight into what life is like for young carers all over the UK.<\/p>\n
Rianna\u2019s mother has suffered with mental illness for as long as Rianna can remember. Her birth in September 1996 triggered an episode of postnatal depression, which later developed into Bipolar and Schizophrenia. Rianna tells me that her mother was her introduction to the concept of mental health.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know much until I learned about my mum’s illnesses.\u201d She tells me. However, mental illness in Rianna\u2019s family didn\u2019t begin and end with her mother. \u201cMy granddad actually suffered from Schizophrenia. Then I learned that my mum’s younger brother, my uncle Wayne has it as well. And then I have my uncle Roger, he also suffers from it, and I’ve got multiple cousins that also suffer from it. So it’s very genetic, but my mom was obviously the first introduction to it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
A former bank manager and single mother of two, Rianna\u2019s mother found herself unable to work very early on. By the time Rianna had started primary school, she had begun to care for her mother full time, alongside her older sister.<\/p>\n
For young carers, the responsibilities attached to caring for a loved one can be any and everything. Regardless of the illness, carers are often responsible for the overall wellbeing of those they care for, the extent to which is often dictated by the severity of the illness. For Rianna and her sister, an overwhelming level of housework, shopping and cooking for the household was juggled with school work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to grow up very quickly.\u201d Rianna recalls. \u201cIf my sister wasn\u2019t there, I don\u2019t know what would\u2019ve happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
She remembers the diligence that surrounded her mother\u2019s medication in the early days, another high-ranking responsibility that fell to the two young girls. \u201cIn the morning, it would be me because I was the early bird of the house, and then in the evenings it would be my sister. At that time, she was only taking four tablets, so I would do the two in the morning and my sister would do the two at night. Then eventually it went up to six tablets. For the last five and a half years she’s been on nine tablets, which can get a bit hectic.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Rianna\u2019s sister left home at the age of 18, she was left with a sudden surge of undiluted responsibility at the age of 11. The increase in medication signified that her mother\u2019s situation was worsening. I reminisce on the simplicity that ruled my world at a similar age. I was left to be joyfully juvenile at the beginning of my adolescence, anything that may have forced me to grow up prematurely was shielded from me by the adults in my life. I attempt to imagine what could be described as parenting a parent at the ripe age of 11.<\/p>\n
\u2018Young Minds\u2019 – a charity dedicated to the wellbeing of young people found that young carers miss an average of 48 school days because of their responsibilities, while 56% of young adult carers in college or university admit to struggling because of their caring role. I ask Rianna how she\u2019s managed to keep so many plates spinning- being sole carer of her mother while gaining an education and going through the notions as a young person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think I ever juggled it. People would say \u2018well done! You’ve done this. You’ve done that. You’ve actually looked after your mum,\u2019 but I never had a choice. I’ve never experienced a life that\u2019s different to this. She\u2019s my life. My mum is my home, so I don’t feel like it was a matter of me balancing it. When you\u2019re younger, you have certain things in place like secondary school which is Monday to Friday- a set time. You’ve got your classes and stuff like that, but as you get a bit older, you start having your own relationships, you start doing your own thing. As I’ve gotten older, I have found it harder to juggle.\u201d<\/p>\n
I wondered whether the people and institutions in Rianna\u2019s life were aware of her situation in the earlier years. She tells me that while members of her extended family knew and ensured that she was signed up to a local scheme intended to support young carers, she fought hard to keep the details of her home life from both her primary and secondary school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally did everything in my power to hide it. Not even my best friend knew my mum had depression, let alone all the other mental illnesses she was dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the charity \u2018carers trust\u2019, 68% of young carers are being bullied in schools. Many feel isolated and singled out by their situation. I suspect that this was the driving force behind Rianna\u2019s decision to keep her carer role a secret from her teachers and peers. She confirms this.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn’t want to be bullied. I didn’t want people to treat me differently. But I also think it’s because I didn’t understand it. I was embarrassed of what she was going through, and why my mum wasn’t like everybody else’s mum. Even when she would call me, like when she was first relapsing, she would call and the stuff she would say wouldn’t make sense. No one else had to deal with stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now 23 and at university, Rianna has found more ease in sharing her difficulties with friends and teachers as a young adult carer. It has meant lecturers on her urban dance practice course understand her needs.<\/p>\n
While many would argue that more needs to be done for young people with such heavy responsibilities, those that are leading the way in the assistance of young carers are making necessary impact. Carers trust, Barnardos and Young Minds are just a handful of charities offering emotional support and safe spaces for young carers.The charities source funding from events like \u2018young carers day\u2019 to take young carers on outings in an effort to allow them to escape their realities, even if it\u2019s just for a day.<\/p>\n
The scheme Rianna\u2019s family signed her and her sister up for was similar in nature. The \u2018young carers of Brent council\u2019 would bring young carers from Rianna\u2019s borough together to help tackle the isolation many of them were likely to be experiencing. They would meet in community centers and attend outings together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really good. I was able to go out, to Thorpe Park trips, to the cinema. We would do stuff that my mum couldn’t do with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, while these experiences were intended to be positive, for Rianna, it only homed in on how unorthodox her childhood was. \u201cIt really singled us out as children. They would pick us up in the minibus, and it was like, you know you’re the same as all of these kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caring for a loved one with a mental illness at such a tender age can have extensive influence on the mental health of the carer. A GP patient survey found that 39% of young adult carers reported experience of anxiety or depression compared with 28% of young people without a caring responsibility. When you consider the theft of a healthy childhood and then the consequential absence of experiences necessary to personal development, these figures don\u2019t have much of a shock factor.<\/p>\n
While the government has made recent pledges to pay more attention to the plight of young carers, you can\u2019t help but sympathise with people like Rianna, who have already been through the worst of it under the government\u2019s negligence. I ask her what the hardest thing has been caring for her mother over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot knowing my mum. Hopefully one day I will. But there are times when I feel like my mum will pass on, and I would have never known who she was. I don\u2019t know what her favorite colour is, or what she likes to do. That’s probably the hardest thing to come to terms with. I’ve lived with her my whole life, and there are people out there who knew her before, who know her better than me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Words and featured image by Abigail Scantlebury<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are 700,000 young carers, and an estimated 370,000 young adult carers in the UK. These are people aged as low as eight to the age of 25 who care for loved ones whose lives…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":36037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,82],"tags":[709,5949,5958,6597,7031,7037],"class_list":["post-36036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-lifestyle","tag-barnardos","tag-student-carers","tag-students","tag-university","tag-young-carers","tag-young-minds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}