Young Carer’s and their mental health: a prospective observational study using augmented inverse probability treatment weighting

The association between young people's caring role and its adverse impact on their mental health is a healthcare priority that needs to be addressed immediately. Young carers are people, up to 25 years old, who provide unpaid care and support to family members or friends who have either a disability, mental illness, chronic condition, an alcohol or other drug issues or who are frail aged. Australian evidence suggests that the number of children and young people with caring responsibilities is growing overtime. However, the issue has received little community attention and recognition by policy makers, researchers, and service providers. The 2016 Census found that one in twenty people (5.6% or 151,600 people) aged 15-24 years were young carers. The person they cared for would be either a parent, partner, sibling, own child, other relative or friend. Considering the number of 'hidden' carers, as many young carers do not realise that they are serving as carers and families often fail to recognise the role of these young carers, there were 257,800 young people who did not state whether they provided unpaid care [1] With the increase in the prevalence of sole-parent households, drug and alcohol abuse, and disabilities in the population, the number of young primary carers is rising while there is particularly a steep decline in mental health following the Coronavirus outbreak