Youth Week is an ideal time to identify and value groups of young people who are often not recognised, remain hidden and slip through the cracks. One group, most at risk, are young carers, aged under 25 years.
The theme for Youth Week WA 2026 is “Strength in Our Stories”. Among the inspiring ambassadors is Joshua Patrick, an 18 year old, young carer, advocate and youth leader from regional WA. A strength in Joshua’s own story encapsulates his resilience and compassion, developed through years of caring for his sister who was born with complex disabilities.
Nearly 1 in 6 young people in Australia identify as having caring responsibilities. That’s over 148,000 young carers in WA, or up to 5 young people in every WA classroom.
I was once a young carer myself, looking after my Mum who lived with MS. I can personally attest to the value this recognition and support could have in a young person’s life and their family, both in present circumstances and potential lifelong impact.
A carer is someone who provides unpaid care to a person with disability, a chronic illness, mental health challenge, alcohol or other drug dependency or who is frail aged. This care is not provided as part of a volunteer or work contract, or as part of a course of education; it is a constrained choice, simply because there is no one else. Young carers can provide support for more than one person; a parent, sibling or other family member.
With the increase in single parent families, it often means young carers pick up the bulk of caring duties. Assistance might include personal care, medication, accompanying someone to appointments, physical supports, emotional support, cooking and cleaning. While this can be a rewarding experience, it can also be challenging; with young carers missing out on time for themselves and with friends, sports or not attending school or related activities. Many young carers do not even know they are carers, because providing care is a normal part of their lives from a very young age.
Young carers are at a greater risk than their peers of high psychological distress, financial distress, social isolation, financial and educational disadvantage, unemployment, and poor physical and mental health. Being a young carer can impact on their engagement with education and study, resulting in lower income earning capacity, lack of social engagement, and poorer health and general wellbeing outcomes.
Children who care are not currently benefiting from early intervention. Helping children as soon as their caring role commences can result in benefits further on in life. Young carers are the future of caring.
Identification, recognition and support for young carers can be complex, but there are some questions to consider. Do they have limited social networks? Are they showing signs of stress? Are they falling asleep in class or struggling academically? Is there absenteeism, sporadic school attendance or impacted school engagement? Do they make comments or observations about their home life which may indicate they care for someone at home?
While important to identify young carers at an individual level, it is also imperative that a top-down approach is taken to ensure systems and processes are set up to identify and support young carers. Carers WA is advocating for this in education systems, including for the WA Department of Education to develop and implement a policy for support and identification of young carers. This policy should be inclusive of recording of young carers on school administration systems, and establishing strong referral pathways to carer services such as the Carers WA Young Carer Team. We continue to advocate for widespread recognition, inclusion and representation of young carers in legislation, policy and services.
For Youth Week WA 2026, join us in working towards increased awareness, recognition and support for all young carers. Together with our school teachers, principals, psychologists and chaplains, GP’s and child care workers, let’s all be vigilant as to young carers in our community. We can all help ensure they are able to thrive in life and to achieve what we would all want for our children if they, also, were in a caring role.
Richard Newman – CEO Carers WA
Youth Week WA 2026 is 10-16th April.
