“I always find it so refreshing to pop into the Centre and sit in your lovely Lavender room. It’s an oasis of calm and just enjoying a coffee there alone, helps me recharge for the rest of the day.” — Sally
At our support groups, you’ll be among other people who can do far more than just sympathise because we all share similar experiences and can understand, quite genuinely, what you may be going through. This may help you to feel less isolated and you may want to share your feelings with the group, especially if you have been feeling very unhappy, or if you have good news to share with others, but this is entirely up to you. We make sure that we maintain confidentiality. Whatever is discussed in the room stays in the room!
We provide a variety of specialist support groups such as:
- Autism/Learning Disability Carers
- Mental Health Carers
- Dementia Carers
- Carers Care Home Network
- Bereaved/Former Carers
We also provide general support/friendship groups which are open to any carer, regardless of the illness or disability your loved one may have. These groups are available in the daytime and also quarterly during the evening if you’re working or find it difficult to attend during the day.
Our meetings are held on a regular basis and this enables us to build relationships within the group. You may find that you make new friends and that your social life improves as a result.
Current Support Groups at Enfield Carers Centre, are all free but have moved to video and/or tele-conferencing with a small number of face to face places in the Centre, if booked in advance. See Events pages for details.
- Learning Difficulties and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Carers Support Group – first Monday of every other month, 12:30pm – 2:00pm
- Dementia Carers Support Group – third Thursday of each month, 2:00pm – 3:30pm
- Carers Essentials sessions – third Friday of the month (quarterly) 11:00am – 12:00pm
- Carers Care Homes Coffee Morning – last Friday of the month (bi monthly) 10:30pm – 11:30am
- Bereaved Carers Support Group – second Tuesday of each month, 11:00am – 1:00pm
What Happens at a Support Group?
The first part of the meeting is often devoted to a presentation by a guest speaker, and this enables us to exchange up to date practical information that helps us in our day to day role as carers. For example, we might learn about available resources in Enfield, or about breakthroughs in medication or other treatments and how to access them for our loved ones.
We also use the meetings to share tips on ways of coping, and there is often a great deal of fun and laughter to be had.