Young Carers share their Top Tips for Nurses

On the 26th March, DigitalMe went to a training event at Liverpool John Moores University. The event titled, ‘Supporting and Enabling the Health and Wellbeing of Carers Across the Life Course’ was facilitated by the School of Nursing and Allied Health, but The Queen’s Nursing Institute and the Department of Health (DoH) were also involved. School Nurses, District Nurses, Community Children’s Nurses and General Practice Nurses were invited to this informative and practical event to learn more about how they could better support young carers. The training session intended to encourage nurses to become champions for young and adult carers.

DigitalMe and The Children’s Society attended the event to support three Young Carers in Focus (YCiF) champions from Wired (Warrington Young Carers Project). The champions completed a presentation to the nurses, which aimed to highlight how nurses can support and work to make a difference for young carers.

‘We gave advice in the form of ten top tips and shared our own experiences as young carers to help raise their awareness, understanding and to encourage them take this away and start to influence change’. YCiF Champion

After doing their presentation, they were encouraged to write a reflective piece on the presentation, one YCiF champion said, ‘when I did this presentation, I felt scared at first, but after, I felt really good because I am doing something that will help other young carers’.

Here are some of their Top Tips:
1. Understand how taking on a caring role can affect our emotional, social and physical health.
2. Work with other members of school staff and outside agencies to get me the support I need
3. Know who your local Young Carers Project are
View all of their Top Tips here!

The champions were also encouraged to interview some nurses over lunch.
The ​nurses at the event were extremely enthusiastic about participating in the interviewing session, which the Wired champions lead and filmed. The champions asked various questions relating to the support nurses provide to young carers. Champions felt that ‘the interviews went really well’ and some well structured answers were received.

The video will be uploaded to Makewaves soon. Please also visit Wired to view stories about the event.

Visit the YCiF network! www.makewav.es/ycif