Janette was referred to our SAGES team in in January 2025 by the charity Turn2Us. She had sought advice from them to help support her husband. Jannette had recently relocated away from her immediate family and support network and has caring roles in addition to caring for her husband.
“My husband has long-term mental health needs that include agoraphobia, autism, OCD, and depression. This makes life at home quite unpredictable as even the smallest of things can trigger an episode. I have to take each day as it comes. Our children are both autistic and due to their needs I home-school them, which we believe is the best option for them.
Moving from a different part of the country has meant that we have had to find our local support all over again. My husband isn’t under the mental health team at the moment and we don’t have any means of travel should he get any appointments – neither of us drive.”
Janette told us that she had been struggling to work due to her multiple caring roles, which meant that money was tight and added another stress for her and her family. We were determined to support the whole family in anyway we could.
“The worst thing at the moment is the children are sleeping on old mattresses on the floor which isn’t great for their sleep. We had to get rid of the bed frames as they were broken after multiple meltdowns. Not getting good sleep makes all the difference to their behaviour and challenges that they present. This then has an impact on me and my husband. If I could solve this problem and get them a good nights sleep it would start making things a little better for us. I just can’t see a way!”
During our conversations with Janette our SAGES team allowed her time to emotionally offload as well as discussing avenues of potential support, including Carers Assessments and the Care and Support Needs Assessment. The SAGES team also involved the Parent Carers team to help the family navigate the children’s Autism. Working with this team would also give Janette the opportunity to meet other parent carers in the area and hopefully start helping her feel less isolated.
An application was also made to our Carers Need Fund to provide Janette with some financial support to obtain new mattresses. This was approved based on the families situation.
“We were over the moon when we found out our application was accepted and we were able to buy new mattresses. This will make a significant difference to their sleep and behaviour. There was no way we would have been able to afford these ourselves.
I have made self-referrals for a Carers Assessment and a Care and Support Needs Assessment for my husband, and we should hear about these soon. I wouldn’t have known about these if it wasn’t for the SAGES team, who were extremely supportive during our conversations. It’s reassuring to know I can reach out to them should I need to again in the future.”
Whilst SAGES provides short term support the ways we are able to help family carers who are struggling to navigate their challenging roles is far more than short term. We are also lucky to have close links with Suffolk Wellbeing were they can offer more bespoke and condition specific support for family carers and their own mental health.
