Angelia's Story: I am a young carer

Hi,

The follwing is a story about Angelia, who is a young carer...

Angelia, now 18, has been a young carer since she was 10 years old.

Her mother was diagnosed with degenerative disease of the spine. A gradual and painful disease, Angelia has had to watch her mother suffer for over 9 years.

Caring for her mother has not been an easy task, as Angelia’s family live out of town on a property. This has made it hard for Angelia and her mother to get to town to make doctor appointments. It has been especially hard as it also makes it hard for Angelia to mix with other people, to socialise and make it to other commitments, such as school in town.

“I often found myself feeling more and more stressed, anxious and frustrated what was happening at home” said Angelia, “I had less and less time for myself, and felt very tired and drained both physically and emotionally.”

Angelia is not the only carer who was experienced negative emotions, such as low self-esteem, feelings of fear, sadness or anger, which can contribute to depression or breakdowns later in life. These factors affected the health and wellbeing of young carers can be attributed to the heavy burden of caring, under education, lack of support networks and services, and inadequate coping strategies.

In spite of everything working against Angelia, she was able to find support through Young Carers NSW. Angelia said: “The tutoring helped me pass some of my subjects that I was having difficulties with. The counselling greatly helped me to realise that I am allowed to feel frustrated at times.”

“I want to let other young carers know that if you are caring for someone in your family or even a close friend with an illness or disability don’t be afraid to reach out and get help because you are not alone and help IS available for you.”