Services:

• Enliven
• Family Works
• Real People
• Cranford Hospice

Anyone can suddenly become a carer at any time, “out of the blue”. There is no training for this or preparedness for the impact on personal/family and work life.

Presbyterian Support East Coast (PSEC) has responded to this by funding and developing its Caring for Carers Service across the East Coast region and across our spectrum of services.

As a pilot project Caring for Carers is still in it’s infant stages. And as infants do, it has been growing in many ways over the last two years.

The most apparent growth has probably happened in regards to how we deliver our service to family carers. There are now seven different ways we provide information, personal support and advocacy to carers.

• our field worker, who is available for home visits on request
• our monthly support group meetings
• weekly drop in sessions by appointment for one on one support
• regular newsletters and monthly letters to carers
• our free helpline
• our website
• our annual carers’ pamper day

Carers’ feedback indicates that we are meeting their needs by providing a safe place for them to meet peers, share openly the true experience of what it means to be a carer, have time out, identify and work through specific personal issues, that might arise out of their caregiving role. We are committed to finding out the finer details about what carers want and need, which keeps the process alive and evolving.

The experience of ‘being on the right track’ is confirmed by growing numbers of carers at our monthy meetings and growing numbers of carers on our database.

Just recently, one new attendant at our meeting, who, according to a friend, was on a high after her first meeting, brought two other carer friends along to the next meeting.

One of the friends talked to me afterwards with tears in her eyes. “I can’t talk to anyone like this. I can hardly believe, that I can tell about my true experience and the mixed bag of feelings I have. People here do understand and don’t judge me”, she said.

If you also have a ned to talk to someone who understands, please give Ingrid our field officer a call, or come along to one of our monthly meeints.  For contact details and more information please visit our website www.caringforcarerec.co.nz