{"id":1617,"date":"2018-07-27T16:34:27","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T16:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queenscommonwealthtrust.org\/?p=1617"},"modified":"2023-02-23T16:37:56","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T16:37:56","slug":"making-life-better-for-young-carers-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queenscommonwealthtrust.org\/making-life-better-for-young-carers-in-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Making life better for young carers in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Young people who take on caring duties at home for relatives are often overlooked for support, have challenges in building friendships and employment skills and are more likely to experience mental health issues that can last beyond their childhood. This was the experience of Madeleine Buchner who, at the age of 15, set out to change the landscape of support available for young carers in her position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\" src=\"https:\/\/queenscommonwealthtrust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Holiday_Program_1_2_-1024x575.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1618\" srcset=\"https:\/\/queenscommonwealthtrust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Holiday_Program_1_2_-1024x575.png 1024w, https:\/\/queenscommonwealthtrust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Holiday_Program_1_2_-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/queenscommonwealthtrust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Holiday_Program_1_2_-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/queenscommonwealthtrust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Holiday_Program_1_2_-1536x863.png 1536w, https:\/\/queenscommonwealthtrust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Holiday_Program_1_2_.png 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Little Dreamers provides a variety of programmes to support better emotional health and wellbeing for young carers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, Little Dreamers CEO, Madeleine Buchner, 23, has already taken major steps through her organisation to improve the support available for young carers in Australia. Motivated by her own experience as a young carer, she is on a mission to close the gap in support from the Australian healthcare system for the 420,000 young carers in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Little Dreamers provides a variety of programmes to support better emotional health and wellbeing for young carers. One such programme is \u2018The Day Dream Program\u2019 that provides short breaks for the siblings of children suffering serious illnesses, often in remote, rural locations. Young carers can spend many hours and days accompanying their siblings to medical appointments, and so the programme offers much needed breaks, easing pressure on the parents and other family members during the school holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Workshops include mindfulness, arts and crafts, exercise, dance, drama and music for up to 30 young carers in each group per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Little Dreamers and the programmes they offer have received backing from the Australian Federal Government\u2019s Department of Social Services\u2019 Young Carers Research Project. In the Project\u2019s own words, \u201cYoung carers have well and truly &#8216;fallen through the cracks&#8217; of policy and service development in Australia. No one Government department or community organisation has taken responsibility for meeting their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a goal to be self-sustaining over time, Little Dreamers has already made huge progress to help meet the needs of young carers. The Queen\u2019s Commonwealth Trustis excited to support and follow the next steps of Madeleine and Little Dreamers as further steps are taken towards achieving full support for young carers in Australia, and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Young people who take on caring duties at home for relatives are often overlooked for support, have challenges in building friendships and employment skills and are more likely to experience mental health issues that can last beyond their childhood. This was the experience of Madeleine Buchner who, at the age of 15, set out to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,22],"tags":[35,34,33],"class_list":["post-1617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration-QCT-network","category-young-leaders","tag-little-dreamers","tag-mental-health","tag-young-carers-in-australia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Making life better for young carers in Australia | Queens Commonwealth Trust<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/queenscommonwealthtrust.org\/making-life-better-for-young-carers-in-australia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making life better for young carers in Australia | Queens Commonwealth Trust\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Young people who take on caring duties at home for relatives are often overlooked for support, have challenges in building friendships and employment skills and are more likely to experience mental health issues that can last beyond their childhood. This was the experience of Madeleine Buchner who, at the age of 15, set out to [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/queenscommonwealthtrust.org\/making-life-better-for-young-carers-in-australia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Queens Commonwealth Trust\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/queenscommonwealthtrust\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-27T16:34:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-23T16:37:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/queenscommonwealthtrust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Holiday_Program_1_2_-1024x575.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"575\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"carolineQCT\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" 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