A few words from the CEO…

The coronavirus pandemic is affecting everyone in some way. For family carers who look after someone who otherwise couldn’t manage, it is particularly so. Isolation and anxiety is increased and many of the face to face services that are usually provided cannot happen at the moment.

The good news is that Action for Family Carers is still here to help. We are in touch with all of our Carers and Young Carers and those that usually attend our Day Care for older people and Activity Groups for people with dementia and memory loss.

We are continuing to provide our befriending services, some counselling services and our Feeling Good Caring well programme. If you need help you can still email us or call us and we will respond and do all that we can to help you either directly or by signposting you to the right local support. If you are able to provide help for others please let us know as we always need more volunteers.

We have been pleased to work with Essex County Council and others to provide a letter for Carers who may be worried about having to visit a vulnerable person they look after. If you are a Carer and haven’t received this letter please let us know and we can arrange for you to be sent the letter.

If you or someone you know looks after someone please let us know what type of help and support you need at this time and we will do our best to provide it. We are here to help. Thank you for all that you do.

James Clarke
Chief Executive Officer

Volunteers

We would like to thank all our fantastic volunteers who are continuing to support our clients across Essex, especially our telephone befrienders who are working so hard to support our clients in need.

Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, over 2,000 calls have been made by our volunteers making befriending calls remotely. This also includes our West Essex Activity Groups (for people with mild to moderate dementia). Volunteers that usually help at the groups are now keeping in contact with the clients and Carers of these groups by telephone, which is much appreciated by all concerned.

We need more telephone befrienders at this time; please contact us if you can help with as little as one phone call a week.

Support Available During Covid-19

We have been gathering information about information, tools and resources that may be helpful for Carers and families at the moment. We will be adding to these so do keep checking to see what else has been included.​​

Find out more