DISC Young Carers

DISC Young Carers provides help and support to young carers within our 4 localities by providing; information, advocacy and advice. Supporting young carers is diverse work due to the range of illnesses, disabilities and addictions. The most important factor in our work is that young carers are unique and individual children and young people who have a right to have a childhood. We assess the level of care the young people have and the effects on their lives. Through our work we develop close working relationships with our service users and some of the feedback we receive also indicates they enjoy their caring role and it has no impact on their lives. Whatever our assessments tell us we work with the young person and their family to implement packages of support tailored to their specific needs.

Referral Criteria:
5-18 year old Children & Young People who have a significant caring role in their family living in Durham, Chester le Street, Teesdale, Sedgefield & Wear Valley.

Case Study
Dean is 11 years old and lives with his mum who has long term depression. Dean also lives with his 15 year old brother and his 10 year old sister who has Dyspraxia. Dean rarely goes out due to low confidence and low self esteem which is a result of him been bullied. He is his mum's main carer, offering emotional and practical support in the house. Dean told us that he felt angry and fed up by his mum's illness. Dean receives one to one emotional support from us and also engages with activities, which at first he was a little apprehensive about. Dean's project worker took things slowly to build up Dean's confidence and gain his trust, one way in which it was over come was to allow Dean to use his mobile to text his worker if he wanted to speak to him about anything and attend any activities. In recent activities Dean has become more enthusiastic and has made a number of new friends. This in turn has resulted in raising his confidence and self esteem.

His mum's problems are still affecting Dean in the same way but he now feels that he has better coping mechanisms which are made up from his new support networks and also his new skills that he has gained from activities and an anger management course which he had text his worker to say he wished to attend.

In the near future it is hoped that Dean will attend a residential trip to Oasis which it is hoped will again raise his confidence and self esteem whilst improving existing skills as well as learning new ones.

Download
Young Carers Provider Leaflet [60kb]
Young Carers Young Persons' Leaflet [84kb]
Young Carers Report [1mg]

Contact
115a Gilesgate, Durham, DH1 1QG
Tel: 0191 - 384 2785
Fax: 0191 - 386 9192