Representing young carers

This excerpt from an article in The Guardian newspaper reports on a video produced by a young carers project about children who care for parents with mental illness. Perhaps more than anything, however, the above excerpt exemplifies the representation – or, rather, misrepresentation – of young carers by the media more generally (see also Chapter One of this volume). Furthermore, the article as a whole also reflects the failure to consider the contexts in which mental illness and young caring occurs, an oversight which is often reflected in public and professional attitudes towards adults with mental illness. The personal, social, and other external factors that can influence the onset and progression of illnesses, as well as the onset of care by children, are often overlooked in these cases. Significantly, the details about, and perspectives of, significant others – not least the nature of the mother's illness and her views – are also neglected.

In addition, the interventions of professionals are referred to only in relation to the further delineation of the two young carers’ additional ‘burdens’. The article goes on:

Later, the report refers to the “stigma which accompanies mental illness”.

We have used this example to illustrate a significant theme that has emerged from our work: that in both public and professional domains, adult mental illness and young caring, as well as the needs of children and families in these contexts, are rarely considered interdependently. In Chapter Four we discuss the tendency of professionals, for example, to listen to just “one voice” (Gorell Barnes, 1996, p 98). Yet our evidence suggests that, more than anything, the experiences of children and parents in these contexts must be viewed concurrently, and their relationships and needs seen as inter-dynamic.