Access to social life is essential for young carers 

New research finds young carers with higher levels of social participation are less depressed 

Séan Collins with his sister Kathryn who needs full-time care. 

New University of Limerick research has found young carers tend to have higher levels of depressive symptoms than young people who don’t provide care to others.

This conclusion was reached after carers, aged 14-18 years from across Europe and Ireland, were asked how often in the previous week they’d felt depressed, had restless sleep, felt happy, lonely or sad, or that they couldn’t ‘get going’ or that everything was an effort. They were also asked how often in that week they’d enjoyed life.