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The Carers Arena Service gives you the opportunity to have direct access to our Carers Support Staff, either by telephoning the Carers Helpline, by fax or by e-mail.
By accessing this service you will be able to obtain information on:
- A wide range of issues affecting carers
- Signposting to a range of other support services.
- Local Community Care and Health care services and how to access them.
- Welfare benefits available to carers
- Our other services
- Using the Carers Self-Assessment Booklet.
- How to manage day-to-day practicalities of caring for someone.
- How to obtain other services and who to contact.
- As part of their role, all of our Carer Support Staff and volunteers have time to offer a friendly listening ear. You will find them non-judgmental and understanding and all calls are confidential.
- As part of our Carers Arena Service, we can offer you the facility of finding out information for yourself via the Internet. Our Surf the Web sessions are facilitated by Carers Support Staff who will be on hand to guide you through the computer and the Internet and help you find what you are looking for.
Carers Support Groups
Our carers Support groups are held weekly and are intended to give carers time, space and a safe environment in which to share their interests and concerns. The meetings are an ideal place to enjoy a chat and make new acquaintances and friends. Help is available to find suitable respite cover whilst you attend the group.
There are four support groups to meet the needs of carers in different situations.
Carers Training Programme
Our 'Empower Yourself' carer's training programme is intended to enable carers to feel more confident and more able to fulfil their caring responsibilities. The programme includes seven sessions; you can attend all seven or just choose one, which is appropriate for you. The sessions cover topics such as First Aid, Stress Management, Assertiveness, IT Training, How to Access Services, 'Looking After Yourself' and Managing Home Correspondence. Centre Staff and professionals from other services will deliver the training. This part of the service is only available to those carers with significant and regular caring responsibilities.
Individual Representation
From time to time, situations arise when you may not feel as confident as you wish. This could be in dealing with a large organisation such as Social Services or perhaps your doctor or at the hospital. In circumstances such as these it may be possible for us to help you by being with you, or perhaps making a phone call or writing a letter for you. This part of the service is only available to those carers with significant and regular caring responsibilities.
Advocacy
Again there may be times when you may feel unable to put across your views or feelings. In this instance we may be able to help by speaking for you, the views and preferences we put across will be your own and we will not say or do anything you have not asked us to.
Bi-Monthly Newsletter
Our Newsletter is sent out to all carers on our mailing list. Each edition provides relevant and current information on a variety of health and social care issues, details of local meetings and events, a selection of practical support ideas, information about up and coming Carers Centre events and a selection of poems and puzzles. Carers are encouraged to contribute to the Newsletter, Carers stories; poems and articles can all be included.
The Newsletter is also used to consult with carers on a wide variety of topics as it is recognised that it can be difficult for carers to attend public meetings in order to put their views across to those planning and developing local services.
Carers Emergency Card
The Carers Emergency Card is a pocket-sized card, which may prove useful should the carer be taken ill or have an accident whilst away from home or the person they care for. The card contains safe details, which will alert people to the fact that there is someone needing support as well as telephone numbers of someone to contact in an emergency.
We keep a copy of all the information held on the card so we are able to offer additional support.
Social Events
From May to October we offer carers the opportunity to join other carers on a series of day trips. Notice of these events will be published in our Bi-Monthly Newsletter and also on the website Events page. The trips are to places of interest; gardens and the seaside and carers are encouraged to make suggestions for future days out. Centre Staff will accompany carers on the days out, making sure that everyone has a great time and that all arrangements runs smoothly.
A charge will be made towards the cost of these trips to cover transport and entrance fees.
The Centre will host other events throughout the year, which will give all carers the opportunity to meet up, for example National Carers Week, holiday periods and religious festivals. All carers who use our service automatically receive notice of these events through the Newsletter. They will also appear on the Events page of the website.
Counselling
Counselling sessions are held weekly at the Carers Centre and carers would initially be offered six, fifty-minute sessions, on a one-to-one basis with a counsellor. Counsellors will not give you advice or tell you what to do; they will listen and help you to explore your own feelings about things that you choose to talk about in the sessions.
There may sometimes be a short waiting list for counselling sessions, and places will be allocated on a first come first serve basis. We will make very effort to allocate you a time that is convenient for you, and may also be able to arrange respite for the person you care for whilst you attend your counselling sessions.
This part of the service is only available to those carers with significant and regular caring responsibilities.
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