Identifying and Supporting Young Carers: Welfare Professionals’ Experiences and Perceptions

This study aims to explore welfare professionals’ experiences and perceptions in identifying and supporting young carers. Focus group interviews (FGIs) were conducted with 16 welfare professionals from the fields of education welfare, social welfare, and local government, organized into field-specific groups. As a result, three main themes emerged in each of the following areas: “identification and referral pathways,” “barriers to identification and support,” and “key tasks for establishing a support system.” Overall, a total of 17 sub-themes were identified. First, ‘identification and referral pathways’ were categorized into (1) ‘referrals through voluntary applications and informal resources’, (2) ‘identification through collaboration and data utilization within the organization’, and (3) ‘case referrals via community networks’. Second, ‘barriers to identifying and supporting young carers’ were categorized into (1) ‘psychological resistance to external intervention and the perception that family caregiving is natural’, (2) ‘organizational indifference and lack of resources’, and (3) ‘limitations in beneficiary qualification and budget constraints’. Third, ‘key tasks for establishing identification and support system’ were categorized into (1) ‘enacting a law to support young carers’ (2) ‘expanding the number of welfare professionals and enhancing efficiency of support systems’, and (3) ‘promoting social awareness of young carers’. Policy and research implications for improving the identification and support for young carers are discussed.