A young carer or young caregiver is a child or young person (up to the age of 18 or in some programs 25) whose life is affected by looking after someone with a disability or a long-term illness.
The person they care for may be a parent, a sibling, another family member or a friend, but does not necessarily live in the same house as them. The care they give may be practical, physical, and emotional.
The terms "disability" and "long-term illness" do not mean just a physical disability or illness, but also cover, for example, mental illness, learning disability, or drug addiction, frailty or old age.
Famous quotes containing the word young:
“The young men float on their backs, their white bellies bulge to
the sun, they do not ask who seizes fast to them,
They do not know who puffs and declines with pendant and bending arch,
They do not think whom they souse with spray.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)