Sometimes friends are cruel to Sean Donnelly - aged 15. They taunt him, call him mummys boy because he spends a great deal of time at home, cleaning up and helping his disabled mother out with odd jobs.
| You dont take a decision one morning that youre going to be your parent’s carer – events sort of overtake you. |
Asked if it bothers him, Sean shrugs and says: Sometimes. But he rarely tells friends why he stays at home so much.
Dolores Finnerty, co-ordinator at Crossroads, a scheme which provides home respite services to carers in Belfast, said young carers in particular sometimes find their situation embarrassing to talk about.
Often young people do not identify with the label of carer and do not see their role as important, she added.
We would have children maybe as young as seven or eight doing very little things, things they might take for granted. They might have to carry in bags of shopping, maybe having to fetch and carry for their parents if they are ill and that makes them a carer because they have a caring role, she said.
Ciara McKenna is 15 years old. She attends school, helps look after her eight brothers and sisters, baby-sits, cleans, irons and does odd jobs around the house. Her father was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis a year ago and the whole family rallied around to take care of him.
Ciara, like so many young carers seems unfazed by the additional family responsibilities in her life.
Caring for her father and family does not prevent her from doing other teenage things, she said. But she values weekends, Tuesdays and Thursdays, which are marked up as her time out and time off family duties.
School work, Ciara said, is not a problem, adding Except, I have less time to do it in.
Her 13-year-old brother, Anthony goes to school, does homework and hangs out with his friends. At home he cooks, cleans and helps look after his siblings. According to Anthony caring for his father and family has not disrupted his life in a major sense.
If I want to go out I tell my dad - Can I go out or do you need any help? Then he would say do a wee bit of work before you go out or something like that, said Anthony.
Derek McCambley, development officer of the Northern Ireland Multiple Sclerosis Society said providing support for young carers is essential.
Young people are sometimes co-opted into the role of carer in the family unit through a gradual process, he said.
If say your mother or father is diagnosed with MS you dont take a decision one morning that youre going to be their carer - events sort of overtake you and really its only as time passes and maybe as the disease progresses that the person needs more hands on support and care. Its really only then that people are sucked into that sort of caring role, he said.
Currently there are no statistics indicating how many young carers there are in Northern Ireland. UK-wide estimates range between 15,000 and 40,000.
Theres probably about a quarter of a million people who are carers in Northern Ireland but you couldnt say with any degree of certainty how many young carers were part of that number, McCambley said.
About 3,000 people in Northern Ireland have MS, that is one in 600 people, the highest incidence in the UK.
In a survey conducted by the MS Society about young carers in Northern Ireland, one third said they would like respite care for their family member; four-fifths said they did not know where to go for any kind of information on young carers and just over half said they would like to take part in a monthly discussion group. Sixty-nine percent of young carers were aged between 13 and 16 years.
To highlight the work of young carers, the MS Society has recently launched the Young Carers Award scheme. It aims to give young carers of MS sufferers recognition and encourage their participation in the organisation and work of the MS society. The Awards Ceremony will be hosted this December.
Information about support for carers will be the focus of this years National Carers Week, 12-18 June. Groups across Northern Ireland are running displays and organising events. This years theme is on financial hardship carers can face.
About the team
This article was produced by a team which include editors Mairead Duffy,15, Marie-Therese Larkin, 15, Kathleen Ingham, 14, Marguerite McNeill, 15, James Elwood, 17 and reporter Andrew Moore, 13. It was published in the Irish News.
