frequently asked questions

You will be a young carers if you are under the age of 18 and help to care for a parent, sister, brother, grandparent or another individual because of:

• an illness
• a disability
• a mental health difficulty
• misuse of drugs or alcohol
  

Most young carers, see themselves as other young people, with extra responsibilities!

Young carers are young people under the age of 18 who provide care, unpaid, for a family member with an illness or disability, mental health condition or an addiction. You may have been providing care or support from a very young age, or have recently found that you have taken on other roles at home.

You did not do anything you should not have done. Circumstance has meant that you have become a young
carer. Some people become unwell or disabled and need help from their children or siblings to help them live a life they enjoy.

Being recognised as a young carer means that you can get extra support from lots of places including:

• school or college
• GP
• the local council
• charitable organisations

‍All young carers have legal rights.

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You can be who you want to be and do whatever you want to do. Being a young carer should not stop you from following your dreams and aspirations.

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There are organisations that can help you and your family members, so that your caring role is not the reason why you cannot enjoy things like all other children and young people do.

There is no lower age limit on when you can become a young carer.

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Absolutely not if you don’t want to! However, many young carers tell us that they find it really helpful to be able to talk to other young people who live similar lives to them.

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It takes somebody really special to become a young carer. It may not feel like it at times, but you are doing a really great job. Not all young carers are identified by adults around them. So you may know of a young carer who hasn’t yet been offer support, thats okay - you can let them know about services like Centre 33.

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Sometimes things will change, but we hope that these changes are for the better.

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You may be able to be invited to meet other young carers, so have somebody to talk to or the person you help to look after may get some more help.

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It is likely that there will be a few new people that come into your life to help support you and the person you help to look after.

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Yes. Once you are told you are a young carer, that person should be able to put help in place for you.

You will help decide what this support looks like.

Adults around you will want to make sure you are safe. Sometimes people hurt other people because of their own illnesses or disabilities. Adults will do their best to understand why things are happening and put plans in place to help you and your family.

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When you are told that you are a young carer you should be asked if you would like a Young Carers Needs Assessment.

If you are under 13, your parents must agree to this.

This assessment can determine whether it's appropriate for you to care for someone else, and takes into account whether you want to be a carer.

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We hope that by working with lots of organisations that the person you look after is well cared for. If this is not the case, we will try to support with this.

If you are giving care that is above what we believe somebody your age should be giving, we may have to ask social services for some help. Their job is to put the right support in place for the person you look after, so that you don’t have to do those things.

Just because you have an illness or disability, does not mean that you cannot help to look after other people.

You are just as much of a young carer, as other young carers would be.

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We would like every young carer to be able to get time for themselves.

A Young Carers Needs Assessment will help us to see what can be put in place to make sure you get some free time.

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Being a young carer should not mean that you cannot have fun.

You have a right to be a child/young person just as much as somebody who doesn’t help a loved one.

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If you’re facing housing issues or don’t know where to turn, just get in touch with us. Whether you call, visit, or message, we’ll assess your situation and provide the support you need. We can help you with everything from emergency housing options to finding long-term solutions.

If you are 16 or 17 years old and become homeless you are probably entitled to help from social services. Centre 33, or the Youth Support Service -formerly called Connexions - can refer you to social services, who would carry out an assessment and support you according to your housing needs. We would always discuss a referral to social services with you first and continue to offer support through the whole process and help you to get your point of view across.

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Social Services may be able to help you to stay at home or to arrange for you to live elsewhere.If your home doesn’t feel like a safe place for you to go it’s particularly important that you ask for support. Social services may also be able to give you financial assistance and help you with training or education.

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Use our drop-in service to get immediate advice and support. Visit our Wellbeing Hub for resources on coping and managing stress during this time. Reach out to services like Jimmy’s Cambridge, the Street Outreach Team, or local councils for emergency assistance.

There are a lot of things to plan, if you are planning to move out from home and rent a place privately. Centre 33 is able to help you prepare for this step. In general we would recommend you check that you can afford to move out. The government provides information on additional benefits like housing benefits (if you are on a low income), and your housing options in general. Shelter (the National housing and homeless charity) provides information on housing options.

Counselling is like having a conversation with someone who really listens to you and takes what you say seriously. Your counsellor won’t judge you and will try hard to understand things from your point of view. It might feel strange at first, talking like this to someone you don’t know but counsellors are trained to listen with an open mind and let you take things at your own pace. You will have a chance to work out what your goals are – what you want to get out of your counselling sessions.  

Sometimes we all have problems that are worrying. Think of a confusing jigsaw when all the pieces are difficult to match together. Talking about a problem in counselling is like sorting out all the pieces so we can begin to build a picture that makes more sense to us. Counselling is different for everyone and by building a bigger picture it might help you to solve a specific problem or make difficult decisions, to learn how to cope better with difficulties, understand yourself and your feelings better or improve relationships. ‍

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Sometimes it’s difficult or embarrassing to talk to parents, friends or teachers about things that are making us anxious. A counsellor is someone who you can talk to in a different way, someone who will listen to you very carefully, who will not judge you or tell you what to do. Counselling is about helping you to work things out for yourself, making decisions and choices and helping you to look at things differently. It can help you to feel better about yourself.  

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An assessment is what happens in your first meeting with us and is where you get to explain your situation and what help you need.  You will be asked some questions about yourself so that we can understand your difficulties and the best way to help you.  The help we can offer will be explained and you can say what kind of help you would prefer. There is often a gap between your assessment and the start of any counselling or therapy, and this will be explained to you. 

You can usually have up to six appointments. Sometimes the service can be extended if needed. Appointments are usually weekly at the same time, on the same day.   

It’s OK, and we understand that sometimes people have to change their plans. We do ask that you let us know as soon as possible if you can’t make an appointment. You may risk all your appointments being cancelled if you don’t keep your appointment and haven’t contacted us to let us know.  

If you are scared or worried about how you are feeling  you could either see your doctor or you could contact the following organisations:  

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ChildLine - (Under 16) Call 0800 11 11 (free of charge)  

Young Minds Crisis Text Service - Text YM to 85258 (free of charge)  

Samaritans - (16+) Call 116 123 (free of charge)  

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If you feel that your situation is getting worse, please contact your doctor. If you are scared about harming yourself or feel you are at serious risk to yourself you can call the emergency services on 111 – and choose the mental health option. A mental health professional will assess your situation and will provide you with information on what to do or where to go.

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Please also see our Need Help Now? page for more information.

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Drop-in support: You can come to our drop-in service any time without an appointment. You can find times and venues here. The service is here for you to have a chat about anything that may be troubling you in a private, confidential space with a trained project worker.

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‍What else can I do to help myself: There is all sorts of information here about issues that may be affecting you. There are various websites you might find useful:  

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The Childline website has very helpful information across a wide range of topics. They also offer an online counselling chat service.

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You can find a lot of information about where to get help in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough on Keep Your Head.

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Young Minds has a website with good ideas about how you can look after yourself.

Cambridge University has a good overview of various issues and specific self-help ideas. You can also find apps for specific difficulties and issues: anxiety and depression.

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If you are scared or worried about how you are feeling and do not want to come to our drop-in service then you could either see your doctor or you can look here for where to get help now.  

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The Centre 33 counselling service is confidential. It’s your time and your space to be with someone who is there for you and nobody else. If you want to talk to anyone else about what you have discussed in the counselling session, then that is up to you.  ‍In exceptional circumstances, if we believe that you or another person is at serious risk of immediate harm, we would need to talk to someone else to help keep you safe, but we will always try to talk with you about this first.  ‍

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Our counsellors present their work to a Centre 33 counselling supervisor regularly. This person checks that the counsellor is working well with you.  ‍Centre 33 is part of a partnership of young people’s mental health organisations known as YOUnited. If you have been referred through YOUnited your personal data is held on the NHS database used by YOUnited. Your consent will have been asked for to hold this information. What you talk about in your counselling/therapy sessions with Centre 33 will remain confidential between you and Centre 33. 

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We offer short-term counselling in many secondary schools in Cambridgeshire. However, you cannot ask us to be seen in school, instead you need to get in contact with somebody at school (for example, student support, head of house, head of year) and they will discuss counselling with you and refer you to the service in your school. If you are a school interested in offering this service with Centre 33 then please get in touch schools@centre33.org.uk 

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Guided self-help and counselling are different types of mental health support. We can help to explore which one feels right for you, but we think these are some key differences: guided self-help is typically more structured than counselling, with specific activities and strategies planned for each session. While guided self-help mainly focuses on addressing current and future concerns, counselling also explores past issues. Guided self-help mainly focuses on anxiety or low mood (although there are other things we can support with like confidence, general wellbeing or sleep difficulties), whereas counselling can support with other difficulties as well. ‍Find out more about counselling.

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We hold 50-minute sessions either remotely using Zoom or face to face in one of our hubs. We have hubs in Peterborough, Wisbech, Huntingdon, Ely and Cambridge. We will send out the Zoom details and links to you before the session. 

It is normal to feel anxious, worried or scared before a session, it can feel daunting, a new environment, a new person to get to know, you are not so sure how things work yet. We understand that, and we have a lot of experience of working with people who find sessions difficult. We will do our best to try and put you at ease, we will offer you a drink and introduce ourselves. There is no pressure for you to talk about anything you don’t want to. We have comfortable rooms, fidget toys and paper for colouring which you can use in the session. We are judgement free. 

We adapt our sessions and the work we do to suit your needs as best as we can. We take people’s sensory needs, preferred ways of learning and the ways people process information very seriously and will do what we can to support you. If you let us know what you find helpful and unhelpful, for example, reducing bright lights, using music or headphones to reduce unwelcome noises, we have fidget toys and pens and paper in every room you can use.  If you find eye contact difficult for any reason, we respect that and we do not expect it. If you require breaks to move about or just need some time to yourself, we 100% support that.