Growing Up with Chronic Illness

Understanding the experience of growing up with a chronic illness means seeing the bigger picture.

The Teapot Trust’s Young Voices programme have put together a resource to help understand how chronic illness impacts different areas of children and young peoples lives, and how it changes over different ages and life stages. Children and young people often share that they feel like their experiences are split up into different ‘slices’ that are separated out – physical health, mental health, education, family and friendships. Similarly, different ages and stages are looked at in isolation. Young Voices shared:

“This can be harmful because that is not how we live our lives. All these experiences and parts of our life are overlapping and affect each other and affect us. We are whole people and to understand us and our experiences growing up with chronic illness and be able to support us you must see the big picture” 

Over a series of creative workshops Young Voices volunteers, Abbie, Amber, Becky, Sophie, Hannah, Olivia, Rebecca, and others who wish to remain anonymous, came together to create something to help adults and professionals to see the ‘whole picture’. It was also important for children and young people to see their experiences growing up represented. This resource, a timeline that documents some experiences of growing up with chronic illness, was created. It pulls together thoughts, feelings, experiences, and reflections from growing up with chronic illness. 

Download the resource here.

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