1.3  Health and wellbeing

Earlier in this section, you heard from carers talking about the kinds of roles or responsibilities they have in their caring role. Understanding the range of experiences carers have will help you to develop supportive strategies to keep student carers in university and on a successful path.

Now let’s look at how caring might affect a carer’s health and wellbeing.

[Caring] can often lead to us being more isolated from our peers as they simply cannot empathise with the often traumatic situations we have come from.

(Martin, 2020, p. 23)

Now let’s hear from Rebecca again as she talks about the impact of her caring role on her wellbeing while at university in this video.

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Transcript: Video 1.2  My caring role and the impact on university

[My caring role and the impact on university]

REBECCA BAXTER
For my caring role, I care for my brother who has autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and severe anxiety and depression. And I also care for my Mum who has complex regional pain syndrome in her right leg. So, for this, I provide a lot of emotional support to both, as well as just making sure my brother eats enough, because part of his autism is he doesn’t always recognise when he’s hungry. I also do a lot of physical things for my Mum like cooking and cleaning, and then so that her leg can rest, I just do small things around the house or get things for her so that she doesn’t have to keep getting up and down. And then for my brother, it’s a lot of emotional support, especially in the evenings, because his mental health is worse at night when he’s trying to sleep. So, it’s often texting at night just to calm his anxiety down so he can sleep well.
At university, it just means I get more late nights… well, maybe not more late nights than the average student, but my late nights aren’t always drinking, sometimes it is just I’m wanting to sleep because I have an early morning lecture tomorrow and I have to write an essay or something, but I can’t because I’m just texting my brother to make sure that he’s okay.

[The emotional impact of caring while at university]

The emotional impact of a caring role at university definitely took its toll on me in my first semester because I wasn’t used to it because it was my first time being at uni. So, that was really hard. But over Christmas, I spoke to my Mum and she suggested that when I’m tired because I’ve been speaking to my brother late, like just put my laptop down, don’t try and do the assignment, like I can get in bed and watch a funny movie or a movie I enjoy to cheer myself up again because there’s no point writing an essay while tired, because it’s not going to be as good, so I just need to take that moment to relax and not be tired and stressed because that isn’t going to produce a good assignment. And recently I’ve also been going on just some walks to clear my head so that I’m not just in my flat all the time and I’m getting a change of scenery and able to relax without thinking about anything, like just putting my music in and not doing anything, really.
End transcript: Video 1.2  My caring role and the impact on university
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Video 1.2  My caring role and the impact on university
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Activity 1.3  Supporting student carers

Timing: Allow 5–10 minutes

Having watched Video 1.2, what kind of changes could you help put in place to support student carers like Rebecca in your institution? Make some notes in the text box below or in your learning journal if you’re using one.

Here are some examples to get you started:

  • Simplify an existing system or process.
  • Raise awareness with colleagues or carers.
  • Build internal partnerships with colleagues or externally with other institutions or organisations.
  • Add resources to the carer page on your website.
  • Share health and wellbeing information on social media or through your student carer networks.
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Described image
Facts about student carers (Sempik and Becker, 2014, p. 3)
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This is an image that contains six different pictures and statistics.

The top left-hand one is a picture of a yellow heart with a plaster over the right side of it. 39% is written in blue directly below the picture in a large font size. Black writing in a smaller font size is directly below which says: rated their physical health as either ‘just ok’ or ‘poor’.

The top right-hand one is a picture of a pink head with three white cogs where the brain would be. 45% is written in blue directly below the picture in a large font size. Black writing in a smaller font size is directly below which says: reported having mental health problems.

The middle left-hand one is a picture of a green head with a white exclamation point and question mark where the brain would be. 56% is written in blue directly below the picture in a large font size. Black writing in a smaller font size is directly below which says: were experiencing difficulties because of their caring role.

The middle right-hand one is a picture of a blue graduation cap with a blue x on the left of it. 16% is written in blue directly below the picture in a large font size. Black writing in a smaller font size is directly below which says: were concerned that they might have to drop out of university.

The bottom left-hand one is a picture of two overlapping pink speech bubbles. 75% is written in blue directly below the picture in a large font size. Black writing in a smaller font is directly below which says: of respondents informed university staff of their caring role.

The bottom right-hand one is a picture of five yellow outlines of people. 45% is written in blue directly below the picture in a large font size. Black writing in a smaller font is directly below which says: said there was no-one at university who recognised them as a carer and helped them.

Facts about student carers (Sempik and Becker, 2014, p. 3)

Facts about student carers

1.4  Legislation and policy related to student carers