Would you like some Advice, Guidance and Emotional Support?
Our SAGES (Suffolk Advice, Guidance and Emotional Support) team is here to help and support you. SAGES is a service working in partnership. The three partners are Suffolk Family Carers, Suffolk Libraries and Suffolk Mind.
Caring for someone with a Mental Health condition can be very hard. After all, we can’t see inside someone else’s head and therefore it is difficult to tell how someone is feeling or thinking. The nature of mental illness is that it can be invisible, perhaps not all of the time to those who are nearest and dearest, but the stigma of being mentally unwell can lead to a person putting on a ‘mask’, pretending they are fine and this can lead to frustration for Family Carers, as everyone else thinks that the person is well or perhaps just a bit ‘down’. Family Carers can feel like they have no-one to turn to, that no-one understands, and this leads to isolation, anxiety and frustration. Eventually this can impact on their own mental health and wellbeing.
The SAGES team at Suffolk Family Carers offers a FREE and confidential service for family carers, families and friends of people with mental and emotional wellbeing needs. We aim to help you maintain your caring role and look after your own wellbeing by providing advice, guidance and emotional support.
How we can support you
The team offers 1:1 support with a SAGES worker if you would like some emotional support. This may be via the telephone or face to face. Whilst we do not offer a counselling service, our 2 experienced support workers have had extensive training, and continue to receive ongoing training. Bev has worked in the voluntary sector in mental health for 21 years, firstly with Together Working for Mental Wellbeing, before joining Suffolk Family Carers 11 years ago. Bev is also an experienced health coach. Dawn is an ex-mental health nurse with many years’ experience of using person centred counselling techniques to support people. She has worked at Suffolk Family Carers for over 10 years.
This means that you are listened to by a non-judgmental, empathetic listener. We help you to explore your feelings and aspirations, to achieve what you would like from your own life, while balancing the needs of the caring role and maintaining your mental health and wellbeing. We can also offer information and guidance.
You may also like to:-
- Attend Peer Support Groups. Talking to others in a similar caring role can really validate the way that you feel and make you feel less isolated. Our Peer Support Groups give Family Carers time for themselves to share experiences with others who really understand the issues. There is also the opportunity to receive and share information.
- Attend a Workshop. You may feel that you need to learn some new skills to help you to cope, understand and become more resilient. Our workshops help you to learn the skills to be able to communicate more effectively and lay down boundaries with those you care for and professionals. We also have workshops that help you to care with confidence, making you feel stronger, whilst giving yourself permission to look after your own wellbeing.
- Become more informed. There is no doubt there are misconceptions around certain mental health illnesses. We can help you to become more informed by helping you to look for relevant resources. Becoming more informed allows you to talk with more confidence and reliability, helping others to understand the impact of mental illness on the lives of those that it effects and their families.
- Have your say and be listened to. You may like to influence change and improvements to services by taking part in the Mental Health Transformation work, ‘A Very Different Conversation’. We can support you to take part via consultations, meetings etc. You may be struggling with services, and we can put you in touch with an Advocate to help you have a voice.
- NSFT- Carers Project. Suffolk Family Carers is excited to be part of a time limited project, bringing extra support to family carers where the cared for is supported by NSFT in East and West Suffolk. Referrals can be made through NSFT, Suffolk Mind or direct through the Suffolk Family Carers website.
