From support to prevention: policies and services for young carers
Christiane Purcal, Bettina Cass, Myra Hamilton, Cathy Thomson and Deborah Brennan
Social Policy Research Centre
Contact Email: c.purcal
unsw.edu.au
Young people who provide unpaid care for a relative with chronic illness or disability are a growing focus of public policy and research in Australia and internationally. Policies and support services for these young carers have emerged, but little has been done to categorise them according to their objectives and outcomes and assess their effectiveness.
In assessing young carer policies, this paper develops an analytical framework that categorises policies and services according to their goals and level of intervention. Services and policies may: support young people who provide care; mitigate the care-giving burden; and/or prevent the routinisation and normalisation of care work at an early stage. Analysis of the movement in policy for young carers from support to prevention is an innovative contribution to both theory and policy analysis in a field which rarely goes beyond the concept of support for carers.
In an original contribution, the framework is then used to assess young carer services available or recommended in Australia as best practice. The paper draws on Australian and international literature and findings from Australian studies on young carers. Findings stem predominantly from focus groups and interviews with young carers and service providers carried out in recent SPRC projects.
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