Launch of Report on Young Carers in Ireland

7 Mar 2023

Sharing the Caring: Young carers' experiences and access to supports in Ireland

The final report of the YOUNGCARERS research project was launched in Dublin on Tuesday 7 March. The project is a collaboration between Family Carers Ireland, ISS21, UCC, the University of Limerick, and the Irish Second-Level Students’ (ISSU). It was funded by the Irish Research Council under the New Foundations programme.

Key findings

In the course of the research, young carers (aged 9 to 17) reported that they like who they are because of their caring role, with the majority of those surveyed reporting that they ‘feel good’ about helping. The survey and workshops with young carers found that, alongside these positive impacts, there were high levels of stress and loneliness amongst young carers, with many who took part in the research feeling stressed and struggling to cope due to their caring role. This suggests that whilst there may be some positive benefits to caring, there can also be significant negative impacts.

Young adult carers, aged 18-24, also reported positive outcomes, such as feeling closer to their family and feeling that they are doing something good. However, negative outcomes associated with their caring role such as stress, loneliness and difficulty coping were common amongst those surveyed. The majority also feel constantly preoccupied about all that they have to do, making it difficult to focus in third level education and employment.

The report makes a number of recommendations on how to identify and better support young carers.

The research report is available at the following link: Sharing the Caring: Young carers' experiences and access to supports in Ireland

For more on this story contact:

Dr Carol Kelleher (Project PI) carol.kelleher@ucc.ie