Children as carers.

There is a considerable research literature which focuses on the lives and needs of informal carers in the community.'Some of this literature examines the impact of the caring role on the physical and mental health of carers.2However, the literature fails to examine in any depth the particular experiences and needs of children who care.In effect, child carers have been excluded from the wider policy debate on informal and community care.Nowhere in the guidelines to the NHS and Community Care Act (finally implemented on 1 April 1993) are child carers specifically mentioned, despite the principle of the act which is based on listening to carers generally and providing for their needs.A recent General Household Survey indicates that there are about 6-8 million people in Great Britain who are looking after a sick, disabled, or elderly person.3It is impossible to derive from these data any figures on the proportion of carers who are children.Neither are there any other data sets which could provide us with this information.A new study, conducted by the authors, however, shows that children under the age of 18 who are providing primary care for a sick or disabled parent or relative in the home run considerable risks to their physical and psychosocial well being.4The findings of the research form the basis of this paper.The research challenges the received wisdom that carers are a homogeneous group.It suggests that the age of carers is of critical importancein particular the age when caring commencedin terms of the influence on lifestyles, needs, opportunities, and health.