3.1.2. The Netherlands
RECRUITMENT
In the Netherlands, the recruitment was carried out through schools and care support centres. The first wave of recruitment involved the following: (a) A total of nine schools (three high schools and six schools in vocational education) entered the study, of which six schools in vocational education cancelled participation before the start of the intervention (such cancellations were due to the timing of the intervention in the schools’ calendar, so that it was too close to the examination period, which would have meant students being too stressed with studying for exams and not having time for participating in the ME-WE intervention); (b) A total of 19 informal care support centres were approached. Of these, four support centres accepted to take part in the study by contributing to recruitment efforts, but two of them dropped out before the start of the intervention. In March 2020, immediately prior to the COVID-19 outbreak in this country, a second wave of recruitment was initiated: 17 care support centres were engaged, of which 13 centres dropped out before the start of the intervention. In June 2020, recruitment was conducted online by the care support centres using social media posts, at (online) activities during the Dutch National Week of the Young Carer (1–7 June 2020) and through inviting young carers on their contact lists.