With the refreshed mental health strategy for Scotland being published today, it is timely that we report here on Positive Realities first conference held on Thursday 23 February 2017 – Care Well: Mental Health and Young Carers. We were keen to run this event to raise awareness of the mental health needs of young carers amongst practitioners, as many remain hidden carers and often do not get access to much needed support. We know from our work many young carers experience emotional difficulties, such as anxiety, depression and low confidence.
The event brought together some wonderful speakers and input from professionals who attended. Councillor Norman Work, Carers Champion helped us secure the Edinburgh City Chambers as our venue and welcomed everyone to the event. A big thank you to our Chairs on the day – Joan Fraser, Chair of the Children and Families Network, Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council and Hawys Kilday, Assistant Director of Children Services of Barnardo’s Scotland. Also, thanks to Crescent Kitchen for providing a very tasty lunch!
Leading up to the event we had two ‘Relax and Recharge’ events for young carers at The Yard. The purpose of these events was predominantly to provide recreational and relaxation activities. A ‘chill out’ area with refreshments was also run, where we asked carers what issues they faced in life and what they wanted more support with. Interestingly, some young carers felt this was their favourite part of the event! They created an amazing vision board which was on display at the conference.
The event brought together some wonderful speakers and input from professionals who attended. Councillor Norman Work, Carers Champion helped us secure the Edinburgh City Chambers as our venue and welcomed everyone to the event. A big thank you to our Chairs on the day – Joan Fraser, Chair of the Children and Families Network, Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council and Hawys Kilday, Assistant Director of Children Services of Barnardo’s Scotland. Also, thanks to Crescent Kitchen for providing a very tasty lunch!
Leading up to the event we had two ‘Relax and Recharge’ events for young carers at The Yard. The purpose of these events was predominantly to provide recreational and relaxation activities. A ‘chill out’ area with refreshments was also run, where we asked carers what issues they faced in life and what they wanted more support with. Interestingly, some young carers felt this was their favourite part of the event! They created an amazing vision board which was on display at the conference.
The morning session focused on the mental health issues faced by young carers with Dr Sue McAndrew, Reader (Mental Health), University of Salford talking about her work running a world café with young carers and practitioners and explained how being a carer can affect carers’ mental health, illustrating her presentation with case studies of young carers. Dr Carole Kelly, Chief Executive, Positive Realities, highlighted what is known about wellbeing and how it is measured in the UK, before informing delegates about feedback given by young carers at the ‘Relax and Recharge’ events. Key issues identified by the young carers included:
Edinburgh Young Carers gave a presentation on their services for young carers. Seamus Prior, Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh then introduced mental health first aid and how it can help young carers to look after themselves and the person they care for.
Our last presentation of the day was from Ella Edginton, Consultant, Blake Stevenson and Louise Morgan, Young Carers Development Manager, Carers Trust Scotland on the recent research by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland into the impact of caring. The report is available here.
Finally, we asked everyone what actions were needed to ensure support is available to and accessed by young carers and who should take this forward. There was lots of great input from everyone and the main priorities were:
* Presentation by Edinburgh Young Carers not available
- More time and space to do things we are interested in
- We are aware of what we’d like to do in our future but don’t know how to get there
- We mostly don’t feel very confident
- We struggle to manage our emotions
- Lack of money is a real issue
Edinburgh Young Carers gave a presentation on their services for young carers. Seamus Prior, Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh then introduced mental health first aid and how it can help young carers to look after themselves and the person they care for.
Our last presentation of the day was from Ella Edginton, Consultant, Blake Stevenson and Louise Morgan, Young Carers Development Manager, Carers Trust Scotland on the recent research by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland into the impact of caring. The report is available here.
Finally, we asked everyone what actions were needed to ensure support is available to and accessed by young carers and who should take this forward. There was lots of great input from everyone and the main priorities were:
- Better national co-ordination and strategy
- Raise awareness and reduce stigma associated with mental health
- Secure funding tied in with better implementation of policies
- Take a holistic approach – look at things in contact and communicate
- Raise children to be emotionally intelligent, self-aware and mindful
- Early intervention and prevention – with continuous resources
* Presentation by Edinburgh Young Carers not available

feedback_summary.pdf |

sue_mcandrew.pdf |

carole_kelly.pdf |

seamus_prior.pdf |

cypcs.pdf |