‘The awareness, visibility and support for young carers across europe: a Delphi Study‘

Author(s): Breda Moloney, Thilo Kroll, and Attracta Lafferty
Publisher: BMC Health Services Research
Year Published: 2020
Resource type: Peer Reviewed Research Article

Summary:

The authors of this article conducted a cross-national, two-round Delphi study, to explore how much awareness and support there was towards young carers across Europe. They interviewed 66 experts from ten European countries. In the first round, they discussed knowledge of young carers and existing strategies to support them. In the second round, they discussed results from the first round and offered insights on how to enhance young carers’ support. Results revealed that awareness and visibility of young carers is very low. They spoke about why it was so difficult to identify young carers. One reason, for example, was the lack of a consistent definition of young carers. Experts were aware of certain local supports that happened in programs, in groups, at schools, and even online. They also shared many strategies on how to enhance young carers’ support. They suggested that integrated services should be available at schools, that training others on the existent of young carers should take place, and that a whole-family approach should be taken when supporting young carers. Finally, they suggested more ways to
share knowledge with others and recommended ways for supporting young carers online.

Citation: Nap, H. H., Hoefman, R., de Jong, N., Lovink, L., Glimmerveen, L., Lewis, F., Santini, S., D’Amen, B., Socci, M., Boccaletti, L., Casu, G., Manattini, A., Brolin, R., Sirk, K., Hlebec, V., Rakar, T., Hudobivnik, T., Leu, A., Berger, F… Hanson, E. (2020). The awareness, visibility and support for young carers across Europe: a Delphi study. BMC Health Services Research, 20(921), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05780-8

Keywords: Informal care, Family care, Delphi study, Adolescent young carers, Young carers, Support services, European research, Cross-national research

Where the data was collected: Europe (10 countries)