Third year social work students heard directly from young carers about how they want to be seen, heard and supported.

The Mosquito Mission is a group of young carers who have lived experience of caring for a parent with mental ill-health or substance misuse.   Their aim is to raise awareness of young carers amongst professionals who can make a difference such as social workers and those who work in drug and alcohol services.  

The group gets its name from the famous quote from the Dalai Lama ‘if you think you are too small to make a difference try sleeping with a mosquito in the room’.  

Three young carers gave a up a day of their half term to deliver the lecture – including talking about the positive and negative experiences they have had with social workers –and what small things would have made a difference to them.

Davy Hambling – Social Work Academic Course Lead describes the impact of the session

"It was such an insightful and powerful afternoon for the final year student social workers. The awareness raising around the importance of listening to, properly hearing and supporting young carers who care for family member with mental ill health and/or substance misuse was very clearly communicated."

Feedback from the students was very positive with 95% saying that it would highly likely to impact their practice. The students also had lots of good feedback for the young carers such as ‘Really good presenters. Full of passion, information and lived experience to share. Insightful and interesting… thank you’

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