Too young to care - not old enough for help?
Widespread recognition of the needs and issues surrounding young mental health carers and their parents is still not here. Sometimes it is difficult to understand how this issue has not been solved. It is surely self-evident that children and young people should not have to take on adult responsibilities for care and that parents with mental health needs should be able to ask for, and receive parenting support?
If there are over 50,000 young people (or 29 per cent of all young carers) looking after a family member with mental health needs, how can the issue be ignored?
On paper, it appears that young people looking after parents with mental health problems should be getting a better deal than they are. Children of parents with mental health problems are entitled to a consideration of their needs on the parent’s Care Plan. Parents with mental health problems do have the right to receive help with their parenting from adult services if appropriate; for example, tasks relating to child care can be carried out by a parent’s support worker. All young carers also have the right to a carers’ assessment, which is usually delivered via a Child In Need assessment in England and Wales if they are under 16.
But many of these rights remain aspirations rather than reality. For example, the first National Carers Strategy in 1999 charged local authorities with identifying how existing systems could be used to support young carers. In fact few local authorities have a joint working protocol between adult and children’s team to help them achieve this. Many children’s services are loathe to support parents with mental health problems and adults’ mental health services can be unwilling to support children.
Whilst central Government is not yet using all of the levers at its disposal, local support can be inconsistent. Indeed, some areas appear not to spend all of their Government Carers Grant on carers, and even fewer use their new–found commissioning freedom to focus on this area of need.
The Princess Royal Trust for Carers has made many recommendations relevant to young mental health carers, including: local authorities must recognise the need to sustain and enhance the number of young carers’ projects; young carers support must be embedded in training for professionals; awareness of young carers in schools should form part of personal, social and health education.
We are also working with a number of organisations nationally to ensure that young carers receive recognition and support. Our new research project with the Mental Health Foundation will identify the coping strategies used by young mental health carers. The research will also provide staff with knowledge on how to support these carers to develop beneficial coping strategies. In addition, training of statutory professionals about identifying and supporting young carers will be promoted by the Include Project, a joint venture between us and The Children’s Society.
However it is vital to keep up the pressure, locally and nationally, to ensure that supporting these families becomes integral to health and social care. We believe that every adult mental health service should be under an obligation to ask their clients if they are parents, how mental ill health affects their parenting and crucially, what support they can offer.
Too often parents with mental health problems and their young carers are ignored. This is not an option. Failing in a statutory duty of care is unacceptable at best, unlawful at worst. Not only does it affect parents’ opportunities for recovery and independence, but also increases young carers’ chances of experiencing psychological or psychotic disorders during their lifetime, reducing the pressure on health and social care later. If this doesn’t make the case for supporting these families, then what can?
The full article by Drew Lindon, mental health policy and development officer at the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, was published in Communicatior Mental Health
Further information:
Visit our YC Net Professionals Pages for guidance and examples of good practice for all professionals working with young carers.
General information for mental health carers is available in our Mental Health pages