Letters
Who cares for young carers?
EDITOR, - Sue Jenkins and Candida Wingate1 and Claire Sturge and colleagues2 emphasise the important but neglected needs of young carers. Children's emotional needs are not met when their role in the family is distorted and they are "parentalised" by parents who, unwittingly, become dependent on them. Families change over time. Important changes occur in family roles during adolescence.3 If a child becomes a carer this can lead to a reversal of roles and responsibilities between the parent and child.
In inner city areas doctors see many families in which the parents do not speak any English. Many professionals have to take an intimate and detailed history from a parent by using a young member of the family as a translator. This puts the child in the invidious position of being indispensable to the parents and privy to information with which, developmentally, he or she is ill equipped to deal.
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- Who cares for young carers?
- S Jenkins and C Wingate
BMJ 1994 308: 733-734.[Extract] [Full Text]
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