Volunteers are being sought for University of Queensland research looking at how young people cope with having a parent who has a disability or illness.
Dr Ken Pakenham, the director of the Behaviour Research and Therapy Centre at UQ’s School of Psychology, said the issue of young people providing support and care to an ill or disabled parent had not been looked at properly.
“Very little research has investigated young people who have parent with an illness or disability and the implications of taking on a care giving role at a young age” Dr Pakenham said.
“Young people who are in this situation describe both negative experiences such as restrictions on social activities and positive experiences like developing personal strengths”.
“It is both the positive and negative impacts we want to look at and whether there are differences between young people who care for a parent with an illness or disability and youth who are not in this situation.”
He said with an estimated 36,000 people under the age 18 caring for a friend or relative in Queensland alone it was about time more research was done.
“And it is speculated that the real figures may be much more than that given the continuing improvements in medical treatments for chronic illnesses” he said.
Dr Pakenham said the hardest thing about conducting this research is getting in touch with young people in these situations as they often don’t even identify themselves as carers.
“Young people don’t use that tag and can’t relate to it,” he said.
“As such they are less likely to access the resources out there for carers in the community and even then there are very few resources available.”
Young people between the ages of 10 to 25 years interested in taking part in the research, which will involve completing a questionnaire aimed at identifying the issues affecting young carers, can contact Dr Ken Pakenham on 3365 6677 or email k.pakenham@psy.uq.edu
Media: For more information contact Dr Pakenham (telephone 3365 6677) or Andrew Dunne at UQ Communications (telephone 3365 2802).
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