Expert support for young carers
Are you caring for a parent, brother or sister, or other relative who has chronic pain? If so, you are not alone.
According to 2011 census data from 2011 there were 177,918 young unpaid carers (5 to 17-years-old) in England and Wales. In Scotland, 100,000 young people are estimated to be carers. These young people provide care and support in a variety of ways to help support another family members in their day to day activities.
Pain Concern Carer Community has set up a forum for young people aged 16-25 caring for family or friends with chronic pain. We want to build an online community where people can discuss, share information and keep in touch with each other. We invite young adults to share their experiences of coping with illness in their social or familiar circles and we want to be able to support them and improve the quality of their life. The forum is part of Pain Concern’s Young Adult Carers project which aims to raise better understanding of problems and challenges of young adults providing care for family or friends with chronic pain.
Join the forum here.
The forum incorporates a Questions section where young carers can raise any concerns or questions which will then be taken to our expert panel for answers – questions can be asked to family therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists and other medical staff; we have representatives from the Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living and you can also ask questions to people who were or currently are young carers themselves.
If you’re not sure about help and financial support available to you, want to enquire about emotional challenges you face in your role of a young carer and how to deal with them, please follow the link ask your questions and get involved in the Pain Concern Carer Community https://healthunlocked.com/painconcern-carer/questions
We also invite young adult carers to message us the questions on Facebook, tweet them on Twitter using hashtag #YoungCarersQA, email them to carercommunity@painconcern.org.uk or share them via comments below. All answers will then be shared on our website and some of them will be incorporated into a leaflet for young adult carers.