1.2: Young Caregivers in Canada
Just how many young caregivers are there?
1.25 million
According to the 2012 General Social Survey (GSS), an estimated 1.25 million young caregivers in Canada are aged 15 to 24. But this number does not capture all young caregivers. The data excludes children under the age of 15 and Northern Canada, leaving out a significant number of children and youth who provide care for a family member.
Source: 2012 General Social Survey (GSS)
Hours of Care and Economic Impact
Young caregivers can provide a significant amount of unpaid care and support within their families.
14–27 hours
of care per week, the equivalent to a part-time job.
1 in 4
provide 3–6 hours of unpaid care per day.
$25,000–$50,000
in annual savings for the family and/or healthcare system (Chalmers, 2017).
Why do young caregivers provide care?
Young people may take on caregiving roles for many different reasons, depending on the needs and circumstances within their family. Looking at YCA program and service data provides a snapshot of the caregiving circumstances experienced by young caregivers accessing support.
What Does the Data Show?
A few things stand out:
- Physical or intellectual disability is the most common caregiving circumstance, often connected to young caregivers supporting a sibling.
- Mental health and substance use represent smaller but growing caregiving circumstances, which may reflect greater awareness and reduced stigma.
- Caregiving circumstances often overlap. Approximately 48% care for more than one family member and for multiple reasons.
A young caregiver’s role may be shaped by several needs and circumstances within their family.
Source: YCA program and service data. These figures reflect young caregivers who have accessed YCA supports and are not representative of all young caregivers in Canada.
Young Caregiving Looks Different in Every Family
The numbers give us one picture of young caregiving, but every young caregiver’s experience is different. Explore the stories below to see some of the different ways young caregivers provide support within their families.
Aline, Age 9 Caring for her brother
My name is Aline, and I am a young caregiver.
I care for my younger brother, who has autism. I care for him by looking out for him when my mom is doing other things, helping him calm his emotions and playing with him as he doesn’t have many friends.
I love my brother and I am so grateful for him. A good day spent caring for him involves laughing, cuddling and playing. On a tough day, caring for him can be difficult and emotional. I don’t like cleaning up his mess and I feel sad and frustrated when he’s agitated and can’t communicate his feelings. I cuddle him or give him his sensory toys to help him, but it doesn’t always work. As a result, I sometimes get upset at him when I don’t mean to. That makes me very sad.
Young Caregivers Association helps me a lot. It gives me hope and it helps me find ways to manage the stress I sometimes feel. It also gives me a space where I can meet other kids who care for someone at home. It helps me understand that I am not alone.
Before I started going to Powerhouse® I didn’t know how to deal with my stress and frustration. I wasn’t always feeling well, I could feel sad, and didn’t always care well for my brother. Going to Powerhouse® has helped me a lot. It has given me tips to manage stress, take my sadness away, and calms me down. For example, Powerhouse® helped me build a scream box that I can scream into when I feel frustrated – and no one can hear it! It makes me feel super great. I don’t know what I would do without it!
I hope to work for Young Caregivers Association® one day so that I can help other young caregivers get the support they need and raise awareness of all the fun programmes they offer to young caregivers.
Ava, Age 11, Caring for her Grandmother
My name is Ava, and I am a young caregiver.
I care for my grandma who lives in my house with me and my mom. She has Alzheimer’s disease. My grandfather has some physical challenges and lives in a retirement home.
My grandma has had Alzheimer’s for some years now. I care for her by making sure she is ok, bringing her medicine and helping her keep safe. Being a young caregiver makes me feel strong and helpful.
But my grandmother has recently started escaping our house. It is very scary, and I worry about her all the time and especially when I’m not at home. I get stressed and overwhelmed worrying about her. I sometimes over-think what could happen, and this makes me even more anxious.
When I get overwhelmed or frustrated, I try to cry it out. That gets it out of my system, and I can go on with my day. I also go to Powerhouse® which gets my mind off the tough feelings. It gives me a break from everything. We do really fun activities and it helps me focus on something else for a little bit. Just knowing that they are there for me makes me feel really good inside.
Before I knew that there were other young caregivers out there, I felt alone. I felt like there was no one else in the world who felt like me. Being around other young caregivers makes me feel seen and heard! Sometimes you just need someone who knows exactly what you’re going through. I think there must be other young caregivers out there who feel alone, just like I used to, and who don’t know about Powerhouse®. I want them to know they are not alone!
Callum, Age 6, Caring for his Mother and Brother
My name is Callum, and I am a young caregiver.
I care for my mom who is bipolar and has stress and my brother who has autism.
When she gets sad or stressed, I help her destress. I talk to her to calm her down. Sometimes we just go for a walk or swing on a swing. That helps her. I also breathe with her to help her calm down.
I don’t like it when my mom is sad. It makes me sad. And I don’t like being sad.
I also help my brother calm down when he gets upset or angry. We hold hands. We sit back-to-back and rock back and forth. That calms him down. I know what to do to help him because I know how to help calm my mom down.
My sister has gone to Powerhouse® for a long time, and I finally got to go there. I like it and I like talking to the people there and I like the activities we do. I don’t talk to the other kids about how they help someone at their home. But it is nice to know that they are also caring for someone at home.
At Powerhouse® they call me and the other kids superheroes because of what we do at home. That makes me proud of myself.
TO-BE-UPDATED
My name is Chrissy, and I am a parent to young caregivers.
My oldest son is 14 years, and as he’s gotten older, we have started relying on him to look more after our son with autism. He has a very special bond with our son with autism, he’s the one who gets him the most and who he trusts the most.
My daughter is 8 years old. We don’t give her caregiving roles per se but being around our son has immersed her in caregiving. I have started seeing her caregiving identity come out in other places. For example, there is a child in her class on the autism spectrum, and my daughter has developed a special bond with her to the point where my daughter is the one she trusts the most in school.
It’s a challenge as a parent to young caregivers to see how it affects them. For example, there are times when we are frustrated with our son with autism, and we get stressed out. My son takes on the role to try to protect us from these hard feelings. He will try to solve the issues to protect everyone. But that is a lot for a young kid to carry and that makes me feel guilty. They see a lot and they go through a lot!
Going to Powerhouse® empowered all my kids. It gave them an outlet and a place to get another kind of attention than they get at home. It also supported their journey to becoming independent and helpful individuals. Even if they stopped going now, they were going there during their formative years. And it helped them! Our family owes Powerhouse® so much.
I wish there were programs in schools that support young caregivers. It could be half an hour break for medication, to catch up on homework or to just take a break. When most kids go home, they get down time. But young caregivers don’t get that. And they need that break just as much.
TO-BE-UPDATED
My name is Lyndzey, and I was a young caregiver.
I was a young caregiver for my sister who has a developmental disability.
She was born when I was 9 years old. She is currently 22 years old, but her brain development is that of an 8-10 year-old. In a sense I’m no longer a young caregiver, but I am still caring for my sister – and will do so for the rest of my life
My mom worked a lot when I was young, so I wanted to help out by cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, putting my sister and younger brother to bed – even though this wasn’t asked of me or expected from me. I took on these tasks because I wanted to.
As a child, I didn’t prioritize participating in activities because I wanted to help out at home. I really liked being helpful and it gave me great purpose and an amazing relationship with my sister, but at times it made me feel jealous because I couldn’t do what other kids my age did in their spare time. And the odd times when I did do something fun outside the house, I would feel guilty for not being there for my sister. But despite this, I still wanted to stay at home to help out.
Powerhouse® didn’t exist when I was young, and I didn’t have another way to deal with my feelings so the build-up of them resulted in anxiety. It was hard to deal with and I ended up burying my feelings instead of dealing with them.
By chance, I heard of the Young Caregivers Association® when I became an adult. Learning about the term “young caregiver” was quite a relief. It felt freeing and uplifting to know that being a young caregiver is a thing – it’s not just an expectation of being a big sister. It validated what I had gone through in my childhood!
I would love for every single young caregiver to be seen and understood. I would love for all of them to have a place like Powerhouse® to go to, so they have a place to be seen and understood.