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East Sussex Families and Carers Team

East Sussex Families and Carers Team

East Sussex Family & Carers’ Team

Cranstoun have recently been awarded funding to set up the East Sussex Family & Carers’ Team to support people who are being affected by someone else’s substance misuse and mental health issues (dual diagnosis). Emma Jones, team leader at ESFACT writes.

The ESFACT team offer advice and signposting, drop-ins, support groups and 1-1 sessions for clients as well as workshops and training for our clients and volunteers across East Sussex.

We are currently recruiting volunteers to help us promote and develop this new service in the area. In exchange, our volunteers will be able to access free training courses and workshops.

If you would like support from us or would like to volunteer, you can contact us in the following ways.

By phone: Emma 07920786352 / Tara 07795953951

By email: ejones@cranstoun.org.uk / connor@cranstoun.org.uk

At our office: ESFACT, 3VA. 8 Saffrons Rd, Eastbourne, BN21 1DG

At our drop-in: Tuesdays from 10-12noon at 3VA Meeting rooms. Starts 8 Nov 2016 at Saffrons Rd.)

Info about ESFACT

East Sussex Family and Carers’ Team is part of Cranstoun, Drug & Alcohol treatment services. We are funded by East Sussex County Council Innovation fund to provide support to anyone who is being affected by someone else who has a dual diagnosis of substance misuse and mental health problems. We support anyone from the age of 16yrs who is affected by someone else of 16yrs or older. Most of our clients are the parents or partners of those with the dual diagnosis; some are supporting siblings and others are supporting their parents or close friends.

We are able to work across the county. Our main office is in Eastbourne at 3Va in Saffrons Rd, and we also work in partnership with East Sussex Recovery Alliance, ESRA, from their office in Harold Place in Hastings on Wednesdays and Thursdays. We offer one-to-one support and also run groups in Eastbourne, Bexhill and Hastings. At our groups we sometimes have open sessions where people can just talk about their situation and share ideas about how to cope with the challenges.

At other sessions we choose a relevant theme and have a discussion about it. Recent themes have been, enabling and co-dependency, dual-diagnosis, understanding addiction, communication without conflict and the stages change and recovery. The groups run weekly, are free of charge and once people have registered with us they can attend the sessions on a drop-in basis.

The focus of our work is supporting the carer, however part of that may be helping them to access advice and support for the cared for person. Often, people don’t think of themselves as carers, they are just mum, dad, wife or husband doing what’s needed to support the person they care for. However, it is really important that carers recognise their own needs and put those first sometimes otherwise, all too often, they themselves end up with symptoms of stress such as depression, anxiety, exhaustion and other health problems.

The stigma people associate with mental health problems and with drug or alcohol misuse is multiplied for those with dual diagnosis and often people come to us having not spoken to anyone else about what they are going through. We can provide a safe space to talk about the issues. We can also help people navigate the support services available to their cared for person, and we can introduce them to others facing similar challenges so that they feel less alone.

We are a small team though supported by the wider Cranstoun organisation and Pavilions, our sister project in Brighton. We are looking to recruit more volunteers to help us to publicise and develop the service and also to help support clients through phone and outreach support and helping with the group work, events and activities. Our volunteers are offered on-going training, including a 6wk introductory course. We also reimburse any out-of-pocket expenses such as travel fares.

If you would like support from our service or would like to volunteer with us then give us a call on: 07920786352

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Posted 11:09 Saturday, Nov 4, 2017 In: Health Matters

Also in: Health Matters

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