1. By Kira and Michael Young Adult Carers: Our Voice

2. Who are young adult carers? Definition: ‘Young adult carers are young people aged 16-24 who carry out significant caring tasks and may assume levels of responsibility for a family member which would ordinarily be taken on by an adult.’ They might care for a brother, sister, mum, dad, grandparent or any family member they are close to with: An illness or disability. A mental health condition. Substance misuse issue.

3. A day in the life of Kira 7:00: I wake up 7:25: I wake siblings up, get breakfast ready if Dad hasn’t 7:45: Go to school 8:15-15:30: School 16:00: Get home 16:00-18:00: Revision 18:00-23:00: Caring 23:00 (hopefully): Go to bed

4. A day in the life of Michael 8AM – Get up and make mum breakfast, give mum medication as. well as feed the pets – As well as have a shower. 9AM – 10AM – Persuade mum to get out of bed and get dressed. 11AM – 12PM – Go shopping (Weekly food shop or clothes etc) 1PM – 4PM – Complete household chores such as washing, ironing cleaning etc 5PM – 6PM – Make my way to college for evening maths class. 6:30PM – 9PM – Evening maths class 10PM – Get home and short out mums medication for bed and make sure she is happy to go to sleep or wants to talk about her problems before bed. 11PM – I have dinner and go to bed.

5. This Is The Title Slide And one more thing.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw

6. To summarise…. Our situation is out of our control but we are trying our best. When we ask for help it’s because we need it! We are BUSY not lazy! Listen to us and don’t show us pity. There is more to us than our caring role hence the YOUNG ADULT before carer.

7. NEW! Young Adult Carers Service @ Glos Young Carers Support for carers aged 17-24 1-1 support Caring Counts programme Activities & Confidence Building Workshops Steering Group

8. 1-1 support Everybody else gives up on me and I’m glad you haven’t. It’s really nice to have someone to talk to that listens to me (young adult carer) Emotional support Social anxiety Job seeking Getting back into education Relationships Debt management Applying for benefits Stress management

9. CARING COUNTS

10. ACTIVITIES & WORKSHOPS

11. Why refer? Because we can help! 68% of young carers experience bullying at school and 39% said that nobody in their school was aware of their caring role (The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, 2010). Young adult carers aged between 16 and 18 years are twice as likely to be not in education, employment, or training (NEET) (Audit Commission, 2010).