Eleanor Yap
“Being a Young Carer?” by a UK professor, Jo Aldridge, and illustrated by Jack Aldridge Deacon is part of a series called “Can I Tell You About” and it raises awareness about children who live with and care for parents or other relatives in the home. The story centres on 12-year-old Carly who is the caregiver for her mother who has multiple sclerosis and depression. She is also caring for her five-year-old brother Sam.
Beyond practical information from the UK, the book also touches on the importance of relationships and peer support, and gives a glimpse on the practical and emotional impact – both positive and negative – that caring can have on home and school life. The book also shares about young carers projects across the UK which provide support to young carers such as young carers clubs – including homework clubs – and leisure and respite activities.
It is a good read for young carers and is available for borrowing at our National Library. According to a non-profit organisation in the US called AARP, statistics show that more than 10 million millennials in the US are acting as unpaid caregivers — that’s one quarter of all unpaid caregivers in the country (you can download the organisation’s report here – Millennials: The Emerging Generation of Family Caregivers).
