Tulisa: My Mum and Me

Tulisa Contostavlos is best known for being the girl in the pop band N-Dubz, but she is also a carer for her mum who has suffered from a mental illness since before Tulisa was born. In this personal, authored documentary, Tulisa finds out what life is like for some of the 80,000 other young people in Britain caring for a parent with mental health problems. Drawing on her own experiences, which included seeing her mum forcibly sectioned in psychiatric care when she was five years old, Tulisa explores the day-to-day realities of caring for a mentally ill parent and finds that the effects can be overwhelming and often endured with little outside support. She discovers that there is help available, notably young carers groups where people can meet others in the same boat. Tulisa also looks into the difficult topic of heredity, asking whether her own hectic rock-star lifestyle is putting her at risk of developing an illness like her mum's. Part of The Adult Season on BBC Three.