Mia – A young carer Background Background to Mia’s situation Mia (aged 16) lives at home with her ******** (Pam, aged 49) and her sister (Dawn, aged 12). Their fat************ pass************year ago after having been diagnosed with stomach cancer. Pam has had multiple sclerosis for ten years, as well as depression, which was exacerbated by the loss of her partner. Pam has not worked for about five years and, after a lot of difficulties, was recently granted a Disability Support Pension. While Pam does receive treatment for her depression and is seeing a counsellor on a regular basis, she increasingly struggles to manage with everyday living tasks. She suffers from extreme fatigue which makes it very difficult to get up in the morning. She also experiences muscle spasms and difficulties with coordination and balance. This means that she needs assistance with showering, as well as undertaking household chores. The primary source of support for Pam is Mia, who has taken on a primary carer role, both for her ******** and for her younger sister. Mia helps her ******** take a shower in the morning, she arranges breakfast and gets Dawn’s lunch ready for school. On most days Pam is able to prepare their evening meal, although sometimes Mia needs to do this when she gets home in the afternoon. Mia does most of the household chores, although Pam and Dawn do help out. Pam is having increasing difficulties driving and so Mia usually has to walk to the local supermarket a couple of times a week to get their shopping. There is not much extended family support for Mia and her family. Most family members live interstate although Pam’s younger brother, Simon (aged 43), does live on the other side of town. He is in a relationship but doesn’t have children. He and Pam have not always seen eye to eye and they have tended not to see him much, outside of major family gatherings. Young carers Experiences of young carers Over the last few decades there has been increasing recognition given to the role of carers and the work they do to enable people – including people with disabilities and older people – to live independently in the community. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2007) estimates that carers and other unpaid workers (e.g. volunteers) provide health and welfare services to the valu****** $****** billion annually. Have a look at the definition of a carer by the Australian Bureau of Statistics: ABS Social Trends 2005 As you see in that report by the ABS, caring work can have a significant impact on people’s health and wellbeing, as well as on their opportunities for work, study and socialising. Carers can be providing assistance with a wide range of tasks, including supervision, communication, personal care, household chores and transport, as well as emotional support. More recently the issues facing young carers have been identified. The term ‘young carers’ has been used to draw attention to this group of carers who have been hidden and who may lack some of the resources needed to advocate for themselves and the people they provide support to. In Australia, the term refers to people aged 25 and younger who provide informal care to other people. It is commonly noted that this can be challenging as young people are typically expected to be the receivers of care and support rather than providers of them.WEL***** Social Work Direct Practice I 80 Have a look at the following report by the NSW Department of Family and Community Services: Identifying and Supporting Young Carers Clearly there are child welfare, and potentially child protection, implications if the caring roles that young people are carrying out impact negatively on their health and wellbeing. Have a look at the following video which outlines the experiences of some young carers in Australia. This will provide you with some background understanding that might be useful in making sense of Mia’s situation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqdKvRM-65c Mia’s social situation Supports available to Mia and Pam Until ************ pass************ia had a very active social life. She was involved in hockey after school and on the weekends. She regularly socialised with a group of school friends – Josie, Brian and Kylie (all aged 16) – going to the movies and the shops most weekends. Her grades were good and she generally enjoyed school work. She has been preparing for the HSC and is wanting to get into veterinary science at university. However, most of this has been put on hold since her father died and she started to provide more and more support to Pam and Dawn. Her school work has suffered and her grades have dropped. She now despairs of getting into university at all let alone a course with such a high ATAR. She has given up hockey although she does try to catch up with her friends as often as she can. In particular, Kylie has made an effort to try to visit Mia at home as she knows she feels uncomfortable leaving her ******** alone for long periods of time. Unfortunately because they are now mainly relying on her ********’s pension, Mia can’t afford to go to the movies very often anymore. About six weeks ago, one of Mia’s teachers spent some time with her talking about her situation. This teacher, Mr Nguyen, had noticed her drop in grades and that she seemed distracted in class. Afterwards he provided her with a link to young carers resources: http://www.youngcarers.net.au/ One afternoon she was feeling particularly downhearted after having returned home late from school to find the house in a mess, her ******** in bed and no dinner being prepared. She called the Help Line Number and spoke to a counsellor. On the basis of this she decided to go to a young carers support group that was held in town. Talking to other people about her situation was amazing. It was the first time she had thought of herself as being a ‘young carer’ and that what she was doing for her ******** and Dawn was actually valuable. Your role You are working as a social worker at the Carers’ Association You are a social worker and have been working at the State Carers’ Association for the past 3 years. You ************ pass************ocate of carers’ rights and have been concerned for a long time about the experiences of young carers. You work in the counselling and support team, which includes staff from various discipline backgrounds, including psychology, social work and human services. Along with other team members your role includes: provision of counselling services both face-to-face and by phone resourcing and facilitating local carers’ support groups undertaking advocacy activities on behalf of individual clients participation in community development, health promotion and advocacy campaigns preparation of organisational and other reports in relation to the needs of carers development of other resources appropriate to the needs of carers and the organisation. You find your supervisor, who is also social work qualified, is supportive and encouraging, although she, like you, is very busy.