{"id":102,"date":"2019-01-31T08:00:18","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T08:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/?p=102"},"modified":"2019-01-31T08:49:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T08:49:10","slug":"being-a-student-carer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/2019\/01\/31\/being-a-student-carer\/","title":{"rendered":"Being a Student Carer"},"content":{"rendered":"

During this week it is Young Carer\u2019s day<\/a> and is an opportunity to highlight the experiences of some of our Student Carers.\u00a0 Kendall a third year Pharmacy student writes about some of her challenges and advice as a Student and Young Adult Carer.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the summer before my third year at university my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. It was a shock to the system to say the least but with my mum, brother and sister to also consider I had to step up to the plate and manage almost every aspect of my dad\u2019s life. Before I knew it the summer was over I had to head back to university.<\/p>\n

Being back at university and away from home changed how things worked significantly, sometimes I would feel guilty for having to stay at university rather than looking after my dad. \u00a0\u00a0It was a real challenge to balance study whilst still wanting to be there for him. One time I even face timed his consultant because I wasn\u2019t able to make it to the appointment. It\u2019s a compromise really, and it took me around a year of being a young carer and student to understand my healthy balance.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t always know that I was a young carer or what it even meant to be one. For me, looking after my dad, helping him get to hospital appointments and managing his medication was just normal.<\/p>\n

However during my third year, I began struggling financially, particularly as I was visiting home so often, which for me is a two hour drive away and had started costing me too much. It was at this point that I found the help that I didn\u2019t really know I was looking for. I was referred to Student Services<\/a> for the University Hardship Fund<\/a>, not only was I granted money from the fund but I was also referred to the specialist adviser for young adult carers. Knowing that there were people at university to advise people in situations like mine was very reassuring!<\/p>\n

My life is now very hectic but manageable. I train with the University kickboxing team up to 4 times a week and go home most weekends to care for my dad. Fitting in university assignments can be challenging, however I found that asking for help from my department was very helpful. The university is very understanding of special circumstances and this definitely lessens the stress. I feel I have a full university life and still get to spend time with my family on the weekends.<\/p>\n

It does of course come with sacrifices such as nights out and socialising in order to be able do this, but for me I knew what was more important to me, and that was going home on weekends.<\/p>\n

Having been a student carer for some time my advice to others in this situation is ask for help<\/strong>. Even if you think you might not need it or that it might not be available, you might be surprised. It is the little things that can have such a big impact such as a one week extension on your work or financial support if you are struggling. It can seem daunting at first to share something so personal, however I found that once people were aware and I could talk about my struggles it was such a weight off my shoulders.<\/p>\n

The university have dedicated staff to support students with caring responsibilities<\/a> and have offered me support throughout so are a great place to start even if you don\u2019t think you need help yet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During this week it is Young Carer\u2019s day and is an opportunity to highlight the experiences of some of our Student Carers.\u00a0 Kendall a third year Pharmacy student writes about some of her challenges and advice as a Student and...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1076,"featured_media":103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2019\/01\/carer.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd4PsN-1E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}