Results of an innovative project to raise awareness and support young carers with a whole-family approach
Studies of the many caring roles and responsibilities that young carers take on have shown that on the one hand these can have a positive effect, but on the other hand a range of evidence shows the negative impact of caring on health outcomes, social activity, educational engagement and employment opportunities for young carers (Aldridge, 2008; Becker, 2007). Further, it has emerged how a significant portion of young caregivers, families with care responsibilities, and practitioners lack to identify this caregiving role covered by younger people and consequently fail to support them through targeted attention and interventions.
Based on this information, since April 2020 the Erasmus+ Together project has been working with a transnational approach to develop tools and interventions to support the social inclusion and engagement of young carers in Germany, Italy, Greece and Scotland, with the support of EuroCarers, the umbrella network of carers’ organisations. Throughout the project, which is coming to the end, the partners have developed specific resources aimed at achieving the main objective of supporting young carers and helping professionals to adopt a whole family approach, encouraging open communication about illness and care in order to improve relationships within the family. All project outputs have been developed and tested by the target groups in various national contexts and are currently available on the project website at the following link, where you can find:
- a database containing different rise-awareness and support resources and tools;
- ad-hoc resources in partner languages adapted to the various national contexts involved to promote the identification of young caregivers and the whole-family approach;
- a workshop model to engage young carers and family members in open communication about the impact caregiving has on their lives;
- an e-learning and digital booklet course for youth, family and disability professionals aimed at guiding and supporting them in using resources and evaluating the impact of interventions.
The final dissemination events of the Together results
During March 2022, a series of final conferences will be held both nationally and internationally to disseminate the results achieved through the Together project. The purpose of these events will be to highlight the relevance that the project and its resources can have in the lives of young caregivers, encouraging the use of resources after the end of the project. The events will target youth workers, social workers, healthcare professionals and stakeholders involved with young carers. In addition to the project partners who will present works and experiences, will attend experts who will contribute to build an overview on the topic and give inputs for future working strategies to improve the current situation of young carers.
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