Sarah R’s Story

Sarah is a young carer who lives at home with Mum who has medical conditions and Dad who struggles with his mental health and is drug and alcohol dependent. Sarah has 2 younger brothers who live in the home.

Sarah was referred to The Junction from social services along with her 2 brothers.

With Sarah being the oldest of her siblings Sarah had spent some time taking on a lot of parental roles in the house and with her brothers, to support Mum and Dad. Sarah helped with household chores around the house, putting her brothers to bed and getting them up in the morning. Sarah was also very emotionally impacted upon at home from being a young carer. The family were referred to Carers together and further support was put in place to support Mum and Dad at home and to relieve duties off Sarah, including a cleaner for the family and railings put in the family home.

Sarah started to attend The Junction Young Carers group activities, including craft sessions, swimming, running weekly and then going to 3-day trip to Peate Rigg and Tiree. Through attending the session Sarah’s confidence visually started to grow, Sarah was feeling more confident in integrating in groups and talking to new people and had built friendships with people who she was arranging activities together without help from the Junction.

It was identified with Sarah that she would benefit from some 1-2-1 work around her emotions. Sarah was struggling with her emotions and was getting very angry at home especially with her brothers which was causing a lot of disruption at home. Sarah therefore started 1-2-1 work to help her understand and manage her emotions. Sarah has learning needs so support was slow and we had to try several different ways of learning to ensure Sarah was able to successfully take in the information given. Through the 1-2-1 work Sarah is now at a point where she is able to identify what she is feeling when and ways that she can proactively manage her emotions.

From her 1-2-1 appointments and with Sarah now being at a stage of her 1-2-1 work where she understands herself better, Sarah and her family have agreed and been referred to Emotional Wellbeing for Systemic Family Work. It has been agreed that work will start with Mum and Sarah first and then other family members will be included to work on the family’s current dynamics and Sarah learning not to take on the parental role as much as she does.

Sarah is still attending Young Carers and has attended The Junction Heart being a strong voice for The Junction Young Carers. The Junction have worked with the family and school and Dad is now in rehab and the family are engaging well with services. Mum is in a very positive and proactive place and is eager for changes to be made and has said she is thankful for the support from The Junction and is eager to see the results from the continued work.

“I love the Junction, it has given me friends, time away from home stresses and helps me understand my own emotions better.”