Juggling caring duties and studies – young carer Lucy shares her story

Caring for a family member or a friend can be a demanding job, but for Social Work student Lucy Challoner, caring duties have been second-nature.

To mark Young Carers Action Day (an annual event hosted by Carers Trust – to raise awareness of young people with caring responsibilities and the challenges they face), we spoke to third year student Lucy about caring for her mum, who suffers from ARBD (Alcohol Related Brain Damage), since she was ten years-old.

Lucy shared an insight into what life is like as a young carer and how she manages her duties whilst studying a full-time course at GCU.

Lucy said; “When I was ten, my dad passed away through suicide and after his death my mum became quite unwell with her mental health.

She used alcohol as a coping mechanism to deal with the trauma she’d been through.

So, I had to look after my mum and my brother from a young age.

Things got progressively worse with my mum’s health because of the drinking and her mobility was impacted, her mental health, her memory – and when I was eighteen she was diagnosed with Alcohol Related Brain Damage which is known as ARBD.”

Being so young, Lucy explained how she’d never heard of the condition and she was still unaware how serious the problems were that surrounded her at home;

“When the doctors told me, I had no idea what ARBD was.

I knew my mum had a drinking problem and she wasn’t very well but I didn’t realise that she was showing symptoms of a serious illness.

After she got diagnosed she got taken into hospital then was in rehab for a year, she then went into care homes for a couple of years.
Now she’s back home and she’s out in the community with me and my brother.”

With Lucy’s mum’s condition having long term health defects, Lucy talked about the various tasks she has to help her mum with now on a daily basis.

She said; “Mainly the things I help her with are around her memory, so if she’s got appointments I’ll write it down and make sure either myself or my brother can take her to it.

I make sure she’s taking her medication too and help her plan things.”

Lucy explained how The University supports her with her caring responsibilities and completing assignments and coursework on time.

She said; “I’ve got a carer’s plan in place with the University so I regularly meet with one of the Wellbeing Advisors Christina.

There’s opportunity for me to have extensions so for example, if I’ve got an essay due and my mum became unwell and I wasn’t able to attend classes or whatever – the university is really understanding of this type of thing.

It’s quite a big help knowing that I can get a bit of extra time for things and there’s help there when I need it.”

Having experienced the world of social care at such a young age, Lucy has been inspired to pursue a career in this field of work.

She explained how her experiences have shaped her future career goals; “Even the fact I’m studying Social Work at GCU; that is quite heavily influenced by my experience at a young age of having social work involvement and having to grow up quickly in a way.

Seeing it from the perspective of a service user and needing the help myself, this has been motivation to study and hopefully change things and make things better for other young people who have caring responsibilities as well as also just raise awareness of it really.”

She added; “When I was at school I was a young carer and nobody knew, none of my teachers knew, I didn’t even know!

It’s not like one day you wake up and you’re a young carer – it gradually happens and if you see a parent that’s unwell you are going to take on these responsibilities.

I wish I had spoken to a guidance teacher and told them what was going on at home but these responsibilities were just the norm for me.

You don’t even think about it in that way and you don’t even realise what you’re going through until maybe you get a bit older and someone tells you that you are a young carer and you can get help with certain things.”

As well as continuing with her caring duties – Lucy is also keen to raise awareness of ARBD.

She explained how she has made a Facebook page to circulate information about the illness and wants more people to be in the know of what the term actually means.

She said; “I made the page ARBD Awareness Scotland and I just try and post things on it like the symptoms so people know what to look out for.

When I was eighteen and found out my mum had it, I would’ve loved to have seen a social media page with simple, easy to understand bullet points and quotes about it.

A lot of the stuff you find online about it can be quite complex and overwhelming.”

Lucy hopes that helping people understand what this illness means can also break the stigma that comes with caring for someone with an addition.

She said; “With carers, I think it’s easy for people to just assume you might be looking after someone in a wheelchair or maybe someone with a physical disability.

When you’re caring for someone with an addiction it can be difficult to know who you go to for help and there’s definitely a stigma around it.”

Follow Lucy’s ARBD page on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

By Rebecca Meechan

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