Healthcare Support for Young Careers of the Age of 12-18 Years and Related Issues - Research Paper Example

 Research (Healthcare Support For Young Careers Of The Age Of 12-18 Years And Related Issues) Contents Introduction and Rationale 3 Literature Review 4 Key research question 6 Methodology 6 Design 7 Participants 7 Sampling 8 Measuring Instrument 8 Procedure 9 Data Analysis 9 Timescale/research planning 11 References 13 Appendix 15 Introduction and Rationale The research topic in this paper involve An Assessment Of The Condition Of The Young Careers In The Society And The Issues Faced By Them For Fulfilling The Responsibilities Of Taking Care Of Their Ailing Or Disable Family Members that include the parents, siblings, blood relatives and other close relatives. The research paper enquires whether the young careers receive enough financial and emotional support for supporting their disabled or ailing family members. The research topic is interesting because the young careers in the communities have been observed over the years to have been delivering their responsibilities towards the loved ones. However, while taking care of their ailing families it has been observed that these young careers have lacked in their personal growth and development. The research is aimed to address the issues that the young careers face while undertaking the emotional and financial burden and whether the support groups in the community have met the emotional and financial needs of the young individuals engaged in taking care of their families. The research is important from a social perspective and ensures the protection and welfare rights of the children in the society. The research work addresses the ontological and epistemological bases of the enquiry from a global point of view. From the perspective of epistemological research approach, this study will reveal what are the constituents of valid knowledge required for this study especially for conducting an in-depth analysis. It also explains how someone can obtain the requited knowledge from conducting the research. On the other side, ontological research approach will explain the constituents of reality in the study and it hep the researcher to understand existence of the real facts so that the reader of user of the study easily get the evidence of the information used in this research study. These two approaches are will applied from a positive stance as this research study is a under a major social science area where according to positivist approach the researcher needs to act as scientist. The research work includes primary methodology of data collection through sample interviews by using questionnaires. The research analysis and findings have been obtained using inductive reasoning. The research is of high worth to be conducted as the research findings could be utilised the support groups, the parents and the families to provide the required emotional and financial to the young carers so that they are able to maintain a balance between the development of self and their families. Literature Review The young carers are the young individuals who are generally of the age of 12 to 18 years and are engaged in the activity of taking care of their family members, near and dear ones. The young care givers take care of their parents, brothers and sisters or other relatives in case they are disabled or passing through a condition of distress in their lifetime. As the carers are of young age, they have limitation in terms of their abilities and financial condition for taking care of their kith and kin (Stein, 2006, p.278). The review of literature reveals that the young carers all over the world are required to carry out huge responsibilities for supporting their crippled family members, parents and siblings in order to meet the emotional and the financial needs of the families. The young care givers may not be necessarily staying together with the families as their main purpose is to support their disabled or financially distressed families for which they are required to undertake several pains and find sources of income (Chambers, Ryan and Connor, 2001, p.106). It has been found that the various reasons due to which the young carers are required to take care of their families which includes parents and blood relatives or close relations are due to the untimely distressed faced by them that has prevented them to lead normal lives. The parents and other close relatives of the young carers may be disabled or affected by several diseases like HIV, mental and health problems, age related problems, disturbed or traumatized due to marital breakdown or have been crippled due to sever accidents. The study of the literature revealed that the young carers have been required to face huge psychological and financial pressures in order to carry the burden of their families at an inappropriate time during their lives. The role played by the young carers has made them to lead a lonely life with high needs of emotional and financial support (Sin, Moone and Wellman, 2005, p.595). The development goals in this millennium to be achieved by UN was reviewed and its was co-chaired by the British Prime Minister who recognized the need of supporting the young carers who undergo sever agony and pain in the course of taking care of their disabled and ailing parents and blood relatives. Over the years, the support and welfare groups have identified the young carers and undertaken programs to support the young individuals with an aim to provide respite and relief from the burden of their huge responsibilities. The various support groups in UK are the Barnardo’s group, Carer’s Trust and the Family Action groups. There is, however, enough space of improvement on the support provided by these groups to the young carers. The review of literature revealed that the support groups have been late in identifying young carers who have undertaken responsibilities of their families and blood relatives beyond their capacity. This has affected the growth and development of these young carers as they were exposed to limited opportunities for education, health and scope of employment. The families have also suppressed the facts about their diseases and disabilities and their dependence on their children. All these factors have resulted in increasing responsibilities of taking care of the family members by the young carers. They have not received financial or emotional support from their families or the support groups have also not been able to contribute satisfactorily in addressing the emotional and financial needs of the young carers (Wade and Dixon, 2006, p.208). The increasing awareness of the role of the young carers and the problems faced by them resulting into lack of their personal care and development have given rise to change in the strategies by the support agencies and welfare groups for providing sufficient emotional and financial support to the young carers. Key research question The research question that has been addressed in this paper is, “Is there enough emotional and financial support for the young carers between the ages of 12 to 18 years in the area of healthcare? Discuss the related issues and problems faced by the young carers in supporting their near ones.” Methodology The methodology that would be adopted for conducting the research on the availability and sufficiency of financial and emotional support for the young carers has been planned on the basis of the objectives of the research. The objectives of the research is to reveal the exact picture on the condition of the young carers in the community who play the role of a guardian at an inappropriate age in order to take care of their disabled or ailing parents, siblings and other close relatives in the family. In order to reveal the practical scenario of the issues faced by the young carers and to determine the sufficiency of the emotional and financial support available to the young individuals of the age bracket of 12-18 years, the primary research methodology would be adopted. The primary research methodology would include collection of data with the help of interviews conducted with the young carers and the parents. The responses received from the interviews would be the actual feelings of the parents and the young carers. The primary research methodology would lead to collection of genuine data as a result of conclusion that could be obtained that are free from any error (Kumar, 2010, p.84). This research methodology is also expected to provide findings for the improvement in approach by the support groups for providing sufficient emotional and financial support. Design The research approach has been designed in the following way as explained below in detail. The inductive approach has been followed in this research where the interviews have been conducted with the young carers and their parents on the aspect of sufficiency of emotional and financial support received by them. The young carers and their parents have been selected as a sample from the population which is the community. The method of interview has been selected in order to bring out the actual responses on the difficulties faced by the young carers while taking care of their distressed family members. This primary method of data collection and analysis is the most appropriate among all other methods due to the benefits of primary research methodology as per the theoretical framework (Flick, 2011, p.96). The responses collected from the young carers and their parents would be genuine and the findings of research analysis could be validated against the literature. This nullifies the time and cost drawbacks of this research as compared to the secondary research methodology. The type of data that would be collected and analysed in the research belong to the ordinal scale as they would reflect opinion of the respondents, viz. “Yes”, “No”, “Don’t Know”. Participants The participants that have been selected for the purpose of interview are chosen from the target population which are the families that depend on the young carers. The characteristics of the target population are that the young carers should fall under the age bracket of 12 to 18 years. The age bracket of 12 to 18 years has been selected as this age bracket is considered under majority of programs for emotional and financial support. These families are not affluent and the young carers have to bear the emotional and financial burden of their disabled and ailing families (Verma, 1989, p.37). The sample chosen from the target populations would, therefore, be appropriate as they would provide actual responses on the several issues faced while taking care of the disabled and ailing family members. Sampling The participants for the interview have been selected on the basis of random sampling. The participants who were chosen had equal probabilities of being selected as all of them have faced the same issues while undertaking the role of young carer in their families. The random sampling would lead to an unbiased selection of the participants for the purpose of interview and primary data collection. Thus the responses obtained from the sample participants in the interview would be expected to contain varied opinion on the questions asked. This would thereby represent the opinion of the population. The process of random sampling would satisfy the objectives of the research (Kuada, 2012, p.81). The analysis of the responses obtained from the participant is likely to give insights on the ways of improvement for providing emotional and financial support to the young carers. Measuring Instrument The measuring instrument that has been used for conducting this research is a well-designed questionnaire. The questionnaire has been found to be the fittest measuring instrument among other measuring instruments that could be used in this research. The questionnaire contains explicitly designed questions to obtain responses on the financial and emotional state of the young carers (Kothari, 2004, p.108). The questions are also included to determine the amount of income spent by the young carers for taking care of their distressed family members. The questions also enquire the needs of the young carers for being able to carry out their responsibilities on a continuous basis. The opinion of the young carers on the extent of care taken towards themselves and whether the aspect of personal development is undermined by the burden of family responsibilities have been enquired with the help of the questionnaire. A separate questionnaire have also been designed for the parents of the young carers to obtain their opinion on the issues faced by their young carers and the effects on the growth and development of their children due to the responsibilities put on them. The questionnaires enquire specific issues and the areas of improvement for the young carers as given in the appendix. Procedure A chronological account for the procedure in which the research would be conducted is given as follows. The research question is first selected based on which the research methodology would be adopted. The primary research methodology to be adopted in this work would consist of designing questionnaires with specific questions on the issues faced by the young carers and the sufficiency of the emotional and financial support received by them. The responses of the young carers would provide insights on the improvement of strategies for offering better emotional and financial support to the young carers by the support groups in the community. The aspect of ethical considerations would be complied while conducting the research. This would be done by selecting the participants without any bias and in a random manner that would reduce the aspect of manipulation of the research findings (PANNEERSELVAM, 2004, p.48). The respondents would not be influenced in any manner while interviewing with the help of questionnaire. Data Analysis The analysis of the data collected would help in understanding the justification of the method of data collection in terms of reliability, choice over alternate research methods, ethical considerations, etc. The analysis of the collected data and interview responses would help to suggest improved ways of providing emotional and financial support to the young carers. The primary method of data collection using the questionnaire is appropriate for this work as the questions would be designed with specific enquires on the issues faced by the young carers and the degree of emotional and financial support obtained by them. The opinion of the students whether they consider themselves to be of appropriate age for undertaking the responsibilities of their disable and ailing parents and family members could be understood with the help of this research. The volume of financial burden realized by the young carers in their activities of taking care of their ailing parents and siblings would be revealed through the research (Aldridge and Becker, 2003, p.57). The young carers would also provide their opinion on the range of psychological pressure faced by them on taking the entire responsibility of the family members on their shoulders. The aspect of isolation and mental agony faced by them in the struggle for meeting the cost of the several diseases like HIV, cancer, disabilities due to accidents, etc. would be revealed through the analysis of the data. The data have been collected also by interviewing the parents of the young carers. The responses obtained from the parent interviews would provide insights on the actual feelings of the parents about the effects of the care giving activity on the personal and professional development of the young carers (Phillips, 2007, p.45). The data analysis would also reveal from the responses of the parents how much emotional and financial support that they have been able to offer to the young carers. The findings also include the contribution of the support groups of the community towards the care and development of the young carers (Barry, 2004, p.74). The attendance trend for the screening clinics organized by the support groups would provide an idea the extent to which the financial and emotional support is passed on to the young carers. This would provide useful findings that could be disseminated to the support groups for bring about changes in the nature of support offered to the young carers. The changes in the support strategy would include engagement with the young carers on a direct basis and help them understand the need of taking care of themselves at an early stage for their personal development (Clarke, 2013, p.68). The support for growth of education, health and career of young carers would be important areas of consideration. This method of analysis is appropriate as compared to other research methods. The primary research methodology would provide genuine information and data on the research topic that could be analysed to obtain accurate findings. The qualitative data analysis for this research work would be appropriate as it is difficult to quantify the aspect of emotional and financial support required with quantitative data analysis (Scruggs and Mastropieri, 2006, p.25). The ethical consideration of the research would be addressed as the process of random sampling would help in collection of unbiased information and data. Moreover, the respondents would be allowed to respond on an ordinal scale that would reduce any error in the interpretation of the interview responses. Timescale/research planning The timescale of the research process that has been planned is given below in tabular form. The various activities that would be performed starts with the determination of the rationale for conducting the research. This would be followed by the review of literature on the research topic. The review of literature on the topic would need around two weeks of time for completion. This is followed by the activities of designing the research question and the research methodology in the subsequent weeks. The sampling of the participants on the basis of random sampling would take about a week’s time. These participants would be interviewed with the help of designed questionnaire and the primary data would be collected as per schedule shown in the table provided below. The last step is the analysis of data and obtaining research findings which would lead to completion of the entire research work in a time interval of 10 weeks. References Stein,M. 2006. Research review: Young people leaving care. Child & family social work. 11(3), pp.273-279. Chambers,M., Ryan,A. A. and Connor, S.L. 2001. Exploring the emotional support needs and coping strategies of family carers. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. 8(2), pp.99-106. Sin, J., Moone, N. and Wellman, N. 2005. Developing services for the carers of young adults with early‐onset psychosis–listening to their experiences and needs. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. 12(5), pp.589-597. Wade, J. and Dixon, J. 2006. Making a home, finding a job: investigating early housing and employment outcomes for young people leaving care. Child & Family Social Work.11(3), pp.199-208. Aldridge, J. and Becker, S. 2003. Children Caring for Parents with Mental Illness: Perspectives of Young Carers, Parents and Professionals. Bristol: The Policy Press. Barry, M. 2004. Youth Policy and Social Inclusion: Critical Debates with Young People. New York: Routledge. Clarke, A. 2013. The Sociology of Healthcare. New York: Routledge. Phillips, J. 2007. Care. Cambridge: Polity. Kumar, R. 2010. Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners. London: SAGE. Flick, U. 2011. Introducing Research Methodology: A Beginner's Guide to Doing a Research Project. London: SAGE. Verma, R. K. 1989. Research Methodology. New Delhi: APH Publishing. Kuada, J. 2012. Research Methodology: A Project Guide for University Students. UK: Samfundslitteratur. Kothari, C. R. 2004. Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Delhi: New Age International. PANNEERSELVAM, R. 2004. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Scruggs, T. E. and Mastropieri, M. A. 2006. Applications of Research Methodology, Volume 19. California: Emerald Group Publishing. Appendix Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Read More