How Kieran’s experience led to a career

Kieran (16) was a young carer himself, but since a work placement in October with PKAVS, he has been interested in working with young people who have had similar experiences.

He has now got a job as an assistant with the young carers’respite group and he feels it helps that he knows what the children are encountering in their home lives, as he needed a break at the evening club once too.

“My sister is in hospital, she is 24 now and she stays there because she is bipolar/schizophrenic.

“My parents did all they could to help her and to get her the support she needed, but it was very tricky when I was growing up. She had episodes. It was very unpredictable what she’d do.

“I helped her with things like finding her keys as her condition makes her very forgetful. It hurt when she’d get wound up. She believed she was being watched. I understand now.

“I like my new role helping with the younger ones when they come to join in the activities here. Everybody has different situations.

“I don’t think they realise yet what a big responsibility they each take on, being a young carer. They think it’s just what you do. That its normal being so young and yet people depending on you. You are always on the go making sure everything’s okay.

“One of the things that can happen if you are a young carer, is you push your friends away.

“It helped me a lot coming here and getting a break. No-one needs to know your story, everyone here’s in the same place to some degree. It’s a chance to just be yourself.

“You need to take your mind off things which are frightening, even if you don’t really know how to put it like that when you’re younger.”