Negotiating care : how care is negotiated between a young carer and a parent facing mental illness and addiction

• Main Author: Aeyelts, Renee
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2010
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28597

This study explores the negotiation of care between a young carer and a parent facing mental illness and addiction. The paradigm derived from the current research focuses mainly on issues faced by young carers, seeing them as a population at risk. With an overrepresentation of research exploring children's caring work, the highly complex relationships between disabled and/or ill parents and their children who care for them tend to be overlooked. Using action theory this study explores a case study of a young carer and parent to answer the question: how is care negotiated between the two? The results demonstrated the fluidity in the relationship in terms of how care was negotiated and that is was more reciprocal than that which is often presented in the literature. This reciprocity challenges the stigma and stereotypes often associated with young caring and parents with disability and/or illness and can help inform both future research and practice. === Arts, Faculty of === Social Work, School of === Graduate