Young Carers Awareness Day 2019

Young Carers Awareness Day 2019

The purpose of Young Carers Awareness Day is to raise public awareness of the challenges faced by young people because of their caring role, and to campaign for greater support for young carers and their needs. In 2019 Young Carers Awareness Day took place on 31 January 2019.

Our theme focused on mental health and we used the annual day to help raise awareness of the mental health needs of young carers. We also called for the public and people who can make a difference, like politicians and professionals, to pledge action to help young carers maintain good mental health. 

We have spoken extensively with young carers and young adult carers about their mental health, and a simple message came back to those who can make a difference:

#CareForMeToo!

• My mental health can be affected by the pressures of caring. 
• The support I need isn’t always there.
• Even when I get support, the difficulties and challenges I face as a young carer are not always understood by professionals.

Carers Trust provided a resource pack to young carers services across England to help the young carers and young adult carers they support to get involved in the campaign. Find out more about #CareForMeToo.

Supportive messages and pledges

In addition to supportive messages from UK Government Ministers and politicians in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, we have also heard about new pledges of action and commitments to young carers from health services and professionals across the country.

Survey highlighted that a third of young carers find their caring role stressful

Carers Trust also carried out a survey, with the support of YouGov, of young carers across the UK, which highlighted that a third of young carers find their caring role stressful, and that almost a quarter of young carers have no-one to talk to about stress and worry they experience as a result of caring. 

These new statistics raised public awareness of young carers through extensive coverage in the media through outlets such as Sky, Channel 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, The Daily Express and The Independent, alongside real stories of young carers supported by Carers Trust Network Partners.

Thanks to your ongoing support, more is being done to support young carers, but as Young Carers Awareness Day highlighted, there is still more to do.  

For more information, please email press@carers.org 

Sign up to receive Carers Trust news

In Wales

On Young Carers Awareness Day on 31 January 2019, Carers Trust Wales supported the #CareForMeToo campaign.

Over the previous year Carers Trust Wales led on key pieces of research for Welsh Government which have clearly shown that young and young adult carers need more support to have their voices and concerns recognised by professionals.

In Wales, too many young carers continue to feel lonely and isolated and this is having a negative impact on their mental health and wellbeing.

So, on Young Carers Awareness Day 2019, Carers Trust Wales supported the #CareForMeToo campaign by working with our Youth Council and Network Partners to raise awareness with decision-makers and professionals about the importance of supporting young carers to live healthy and fulfilling lives.

Celebrating the Young Carers ID Card

Carers Trust Wales has been commissioned by Welsh Government‘s Ministerial Advisory Group for Carers to support them in the design and roll out of a national Young Carers ID Card. We also celebrated this step forward in the recognition of young carers on Young Carers Awareness Day.