Young caregivers: invisible care

In the literature, the term Young Carers refers to young people, sometimes even children, who assiduously take care of an adult family member (a parent, a brother or sister, often even a grandparent) taking on a load of responsibility that is usually carried out by an adult.

This is a phenomenon that is difficult to investigate and that is often intercepted when children, due to their burden of care, find themselves in a problematic situation both for their own health and for their school/professional career.

The latest available data (Istat 2020) tell us that there are 391,000 children and young adults (15-24 years old) with care and assistance tasks, corresponding to 6.6% of the entire population (a figure that has doubled since 2015).

The research "Young caregivers: the challenge of care between generations", conducted by Donatella Bramanti and Maria Letizia Bosoni, gave voice to the experiences of young caregivers engaged in the care of adult family members and was carried out in collaboration with some Third Sector realities explored their transition paths to adult life to understand risk and protective factors.

14 caregivers, in their twenties and thirties, were interviewed, mainly women, who take care or have assiduously taken care of close family members, in particular parents with degenerative psychiatric or neurological disease, brothers or sisters with disabilities and also elderly grandparents who are not self-sufficient.

The families in which the interviewees are placed coincide with the nuclear family, i.e. the parents (not always both) and possibly some brothers or sisters. The extended family network is almost absent or limited to a few relatives and this translates into a strong sense of isolation. They are families in serious difficulty even to ask for help.

There is a small institutional support network (social workers, psychologists, associations...) which, however, is not sufficient to alleviate the perception of loneliness and overload of the young caregiver and the family unit. Institutional welfare is unable to intercept these situations because it needs to be activated at the request of the user and is therefore linked to the ability of caregivers to request help. The experience of these young people is therefore highly challenging, tiring, stressful and all-encompassing.

Young people experience a strong ambivalence between feelings of solidarity and intergenerational obligation, but this tension is accepted and does not translate into negative feelings towards fragile family members.

The panorama that emerges is that of young people who show great resilience and have positively managed the transition to adult life, not without risks. Almost all of them have managed, despite the difficulties, to finish their studies, they are pursuing their university or professional career with tenacity and with a desire to fulfill themselves. Someone reported that he grew up too fast. However, the resources and skills that this experience has provided are recognized, resources that go beyond the individual dimension (care as an important gift of the person) and that also go beyond the generational dimension. These young people take home the value of caring for the other (their neighbor), which is of no small importance.