Julie is now 25 and describes being a carer as being “really full on”. Her mother is originally from Mauritius and suffers from schizophrenia.

Julie is responsible for managing her mother’s money and medication; and liaising with mental health professionals. Julie says she had to adopt this parental role from a very young age.

Julie says she found it a struggle caring for her mother while studying for her Higher School Certificate and eventually had to move out.

“I barely managed looking after mum while I was still studying at school. It was very hard. There were lots of late nights, yelling and screaming at home. I remember mum banging on my door at 3 in the morning. There was sometimes no dinner. I had to cook my own dinner. I had to be an adult at 15, but I didn’t know how to manage my time at 15.”

“The real crunch time was when she chased me out of the house with a knife. It just got a little too dangerous for me to continue living there. It was an incredibly hard decision to make, but I had to make an adult decision as a child.”

Julie says her decision to move out was the right one and luckily did not impact on her relationship with her mother. Their relationship has slowly mended over time and Julie says her mother has never been abusive towards her since.

“Mum will never do that to me again because she knew how much it scared me. We’ve always remained close because she will always be my mum and I respect her as such. As long as we respect each other it works.”

Julie eventually moved back home with her mother when she was 19. “I said to her: ‘You have to work with me to help you, to stay well and stay on your medication. When you’re on your medication you’re a lovely person and I love being with you.’  From then on she has been working with me."

As a young carer, Julie admits that it was stressful and tough looking after the family home as well as her mother. She even remembers admitting her mum into hospital when she was still at school.

“At that point I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to be ignored anymore by the hospital staff. Up until then I felt I was always being ignored. I told the hospital staff that they had to acknowledge me as my mother’s young carer.”

Luckily for Julie she had a family friend who supported her and provided her with the information she needed as a young carer. Julie eventually went along to camp hosted by Carers NSW where she discovered other young people in a similar situation.

“I remember saying during my first counselling group how I took care of my mother and that I was so happy that I wasn’t alone. It still touches me because that’s when I realised I wasn’t alone and didn’t have to be alone anymore. That empowered me to face those health professionals and tell them that they could not ignore me anymore.”

And that’s the message Julie wants to pass on to other young carers. “As a leader of young carer camps I tell young kids how important it is to be educated about mental health because I believe this empowers them and ensures that they get what they need and that’s to be listened to.

“The person living with a mental illness is not going to run to the health professional when they need something, they run to the person who cares for them. That‘s why the health professional needs to listen simply because carers are part of that person's life and they are also affected.”