Young Carers Awareness Day – 13th March 2024
To recognise Young Carers Awareness Day, we would like to give a special mention to the young carers that we have the privilege of meeting at the Hospice and the counselling team that plays such an important role in offering them support.
A Young Carer is someone under the age of eighteen who helps look after someone at home that needs their support due to illness, disability, or a mental health problem. The holistic approach that the Hospice takes in caring for a patient includes supporting their family – family which sometimes includes children and teenagers.
Young Carers can often feel very alone and reluctant to talk about their situation at home. Knowing that there are others in a similar situation to them can be life changing as they realise that they aren’t the only person coping with such difficulties.
Our counselling team at the Hospice passionately believe in the importance of creating a safe space for our Young Carers to come together. Regularly meeting with others of a similar age who are also caring for a family member with a life-limiting illness or are coping with the loss of a family member is so important for supporting their mental health. We are proud to say that our ‘Tommy D Seniors’ group for bereaved teenagers aged from 15 – 18 is now up and running again after having to be paused during Covid. We would love our ‘Tommy D Starters’ group for children aged 12 – 14 to follow suit and to kickstart our ‘Footsteps’ group for 5 – 11-year-olds. We would also like to run these groups for our young carers pre-bereavement.
All of the services that we offer across the Hospice are completely free of charge to those who need it. We need your help to ensure that we can continue to do this, and funding is needed to allow us to progress with the counselling groups for our Young Carers.