Can Young People Care?

When you hear of caring or nursing, people can sometimes automatically jump to an image of a mature lady nursing poor patients. This assumption has changed in latter years with more and more young people becoming carers or support workers. However, some people may question younger carers' skill set or experience and undermine the abilities of the young carer just from plain old prejudice.

When thinking about care services, think of an elderly relative. How would you feel about a young person of say 19 years, caring for your 80 year old grandma? Would it faze you? Or would you expect a senior carer to have a better knowledge and care delivery service?

Stigma like this I would like to address as I am a young experienced carer and have been caring since I was 18. At times I have felt that senior carers feel more superior due to caring for a long period of time, before even qualifications or some legislations were a legal necessity that had to be put in place in a care services. But then you could criticise senior carers as when they worked in care services they did not have any requirements, so what kind of individuals were able to gain employment working with vulnerable individuals before police checks became a legality for working for a care service? That's a story for another time.

I have met many young carers and study with them also. Granted, young carers lack one thing that seniors have plenty of: experience. In contrast, apart from experience, a young carer can hold the same skills and qualities that a senior carer may have.

Although some young carers may not choose to become a carer, options are limited. I am referring to the selfless, loving children who have become carers due to a parent or relative falling ill or their health deteriorating. That child can grow up with these skills and qualities and could influence them to be a better, kinder person during adulthood. This child may have cared for a relative for many years and gained plenty of experience. Yet, that child may grow to an adult and employment wise, that person has no experience or qualifications. However, that child has done something that some people may not have the heart or ability to do: support a loved one during times of great hardship and see deterioration in the person they once knew so well.

To conclude, without being biased and sharing a fair judgement towards the quality of care provided by either senior or younger carer, I simply have an informed opinion of how I feel at times; senior and younger carers may not be seen as equal standard. Regardless of age, this cannot determine the eligibility of care and compassion of an individual when caring for others. Some individuals are born with the passion of caring for vulnerable adults or children and strive to help and support others. As I said at the beginning, this stigma had lowered in recent years as more and more young people want to help others in different manners of ways from caring to befriending, advocating to nursing. However, it should still be encouraged to support young individuals to pursue employment in caring and respect the seniors who have given their best years to helping others.

A thought point.