FIN020 - Counselling & Psychotherapy Service

Description

Carers Together have been supporting carers since 2004. They offer a range of information and support services that are funded through a range of funders including Middlesbrough Borough Council. They currently have approximately 4500 carers registered with the service that live in Middlesbrough. The Carers Together counselling and psychotherapy service offers 8 x 1-hour sessions of structured counselling and psychotherapy for carers who are experiencing significant emotional distress. The service is delivered by specialist psychotherapists who have extensive knowledge of carers’ issues, whilst also being integrated into all of Carers Together’s other services. This integration helps them to provide a wraparound service for carers who are waiting to see the psychotherapy team. They also offer practical and emotional support via direct referral to and from the psychotherapist and the information and support team. Carers Together have seen a significant increase in the number of complex issues that carers are facing. Some of these issues relate to the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis that has disproportionately affected carers. Also, they are supporting an increasing number of carers who report that their poor experience with the NHS and/or Social Care has made their caring role more challenging, and they are on the verge of carer breakdown. Another issue they are seeing is an increase in the number of carers who are experiencing bereavement and/or loss, which can also relate to a life limiting diagnosis of the person they are caring for, e.g. Dementia/Cancer/MND. Around 75% of carers who access the Counselling service state that they feel that they are no longer able to cope, and they are very close to carer breakdown.