Young carers targeted by school bullies

CHILDREN are caring for parents throughout their schooldays only to underachieve academically and get bullied as a result.

This is according to welfare groups who said thousands of school children are adopting the role of carers without any support.

Chief executive of the Carers’ Association Enda Egan said the majority of these are not even known about.

And, because of the toll caring takes, children are often picked-on by school mates and lose ground in class.

“We find it very difficult to engage with young carers because there is nothing in place to identify them,” he said.

“Many are afraid to come forward and parents think if they ask for help or draw attention to it, social services will intervene.

“Families and the children themselves need to be let know what they are doing is okay, it’s just the way their family life is and they are entitled to some support for what they are doing,” he said.

Mr Egan said many of the young carers the association comes in contact with are looking after a brother or sister with a disability.

Others are looking after sick parents and Mr Egan said this has become more apparent in the past two years with family break-ups putting young children in the role of primary carer.

However, in many cases the children do not recognise the role they play and can only be reached through local public health nurses.

“In Glasgow you have 22 carers’ coordinators for young people as support but in Ireland we have none — this says it all,” he said.

Fine Gael social affairs spokesman David Stanton said the Government needs to adopt the approach of other jurisdictions.

“It is not reinventing the wheel, we just need to take what already works aboard and apply it here,” he said.

The problems faced by young carers have been brought into the spotlight by two new sets of figures.

First, the 2006 Census revealed there are 3,175 school-going children, between 15 and 19 years of age, caring for relatives.

The second is a small-scale study from University College Cork, due to be published next month, which examined the experiences of young carers from an earlier age.