Kids with adult responsibilities

The Young Carer Journey

This film highlights the enormous responsibility that young carers face on a daily basis.

It features 9-year-old Liam who cares for his great grandparents. Liam explains how his life is anything but ordinary, he has important responsibilities at home like cooking and cleaning the house, both before and after school.

Dylan's Journey

Wellways Carer Gateway Young Carer Support Worker, Dylan, is now 25 years old but he talks about his own experience being a young carer and how it affected his schooling. Looking back at his time at school, Dylan says his teachers didn’t understand what he was going through, and it was hard to explain because it was just his normal everyday life.

With one in three children in the classroom being a young carer, this film will be rolled out across Queensland schools as an educational tool to help teachers identify and support young carers in their classrooms.

“We want to let teachers know that there are a lot of kids in their classrooms who have almost done a day’s work before they get to school,” Community Engagement Coordinator Stacey Edwards said.

A young carer is anyone under the age of 25 who provides care and support to a loved one. Young carers help with daily activities such as cooking, cleaning, paying bills, and providing emotional support. Some young carers provide care all the time, while some only provide care occasionally. Whatever the circumstance of a young carer, it's important that they know there is help available.

Wellways Carer Gateway offers free support for young carers across Queensland and in the New South Wales regions of South West Sydney and Nepean Blue Mountains.

As well as giving young carers time out from their caring role to have some fun and meet others, access to counselling and tailored support packages is also available.

Dylan says Carer Gateway is an important initiative for young carers, providing much needed education and support. He believes it will help young carers to achieve everything they want to achieve in life and in their caring role.