‘I’d love a normal life, but being a 17-year-old carer means sacrifices’

• Young carers experience significant developmental and educational disadvantages due to caregiving responsibilities, with implications for their long-term health and wellbeing that clinicians should routinely screen for during consultations.
• Identifying young carers in practice enables GPs and healthcare professionals to signpost families to support services, respite care, and educational resources to mitigate the burden on adolescent patients.
• Young carers represent a vulnerable population requiring holistic assessment of physical and mental health impacts, as their caring roles may delay help-seeking and complicate management of their own medical conditions.

Young carers face huge disadvantages growing up - one teenager explains what life is like.

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