「甜蜜的負荷」外一章：兒童少年家庭照顧者的生活境遇與福利建構

Beyond the Story of "Willing Burden": The Day-to-Day Practices and Policy Recommendations for Young Carers

吳書昀(Jessie Shu-Yun Wu)

《臺大社會工作學刊》 21期 (2010/06) Pp. 153-189

https://doi.org/10.6171/ntuswr2010.21.04

摘要

私領域照顧者及未成年的身份使「兒童少年家庭照顧者」經驗到雙重的不利。在台灣，家庭照顧者之議題已漸受重視，但目前學術研究探討的範圍仍多為成人（尤其是女性）照顧者，甚少關注兒童及少年照顧者。然而，被賦予家庭照顧任務對孩子的生活及身心發展造成許多負面影響；且其照顧經驗既不同於執行家庭照顧責任的成人，也不同於其他不必擔負照顧工作的兒童及少年，這些都挑戰著國家的福利體系是否能回應其特殊經驗及需求。
本文透過文獻的探討與分析，歸納兒童少年家庭照顧者的相關概念與生活經驗，檢視兒童少年家庭照顧者的福利需求及服務措施，除希望提升專業服務者對這個群體的識別能力，也提出相關之政策構思，期待正式福利系統能進一步敏察並關心這些孩子的處境與需求。本文對未來政策規劃之建議包括：1.以學校為主要媒介建立社會大眾對兒童少年家庭照顧者的覺知；2.進行兒童少年家庭照顧者的需求評估並推動相應之服務措施；3.發展以家庭整體為考量的福利服務；4.相關之現行機構發揮功能並形成跨領域的合作；5.進一步思考兒童少年家庭照顧者的範疇。

關鍵字

兒童少年家庭照顧者 ； 照顧經驗 ； 兒童少年福利

並列摘要

Young carers experience a double jeopardy owing to their dual role as carers and as children. To date, studies in Taiwan on the issue of care-giving have largely concentrated on the situation of adult carers and female care-givers in particular. As such, little attention has been paid to young carers. However, involvement in caring can have adverse influences on a child or young person's physical and emotional development as well. In addition, the impact of caring activities on young caregivers differs from that on adult carers. The caring tasks and experiences involved also distinguish young carers from other non-caring children and young people. These issues pose a challenge to the current welfare system: to what extent has state policy been in concordance with young carers' needs?
This article aims to learn about the characteristics and everyday practices of children or young people who take responsibilities of care towards their family members. Further more, this study is oriented to analyze young caregivers' needs for services and their expectation of the corresponding welfare strategies required from government. With the intention of raising professional and public awareness on the situation of young carers, here might be a tendency of growth nationwide support services aimed specifically at this group.
This article concludes that: first, schools should be placed as essential points to identify young carers; second, young carers should be able to exercise the right to ask for their needs to be assessed and fulfilled; third, the ”whole family” approach could be adopted when working with young carers; fourth, relevant organizations could address the needs of young carers and to coordinate each aspect of professional intervention. And finally a further thought is required to build-up the age range for young carers.

並列關鍵字

young carers ； caring experience ； child and juvenile welfare

參考文獻

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