If you care we care

Who are the Carers

Group meetings

Contact Details

CASTLEBAR CARERS GROUP


IF YOU CARE, WE CARE.

Castlebar Carers Group is a voluntary organisation founded in 1992. Our aims are to facilitate the empowerment of Carers by giving them a sense of control over their situation, and by providing them with security in the knowledge that someone else knows and understands their situation. The structured support of our group helps Carers meet their own needs. Our meetings and outings are often the only break from caring most Carers receive. And indeed it is the only forum where Carers can discuss their caring problems and experiences with other like-minded people.


WHO ARE THE CARERS

Carers are a dedicated group of people, who look after a relative, friend or neighbour, the elderly, the disabled, the infirm, and the terminally ill. It absorbs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, without respite or financial help or support. It is important to remember that one day we may all need care or need to provide care for a loved one. It is true to say that Carers devote large parts of their lives to the lives of others. Carers by their effort, their friendship, their patience, their skills, their knowledge, their understanding, their determination and above all their compassion, transform the lives of the people they are looking after. In all sincerity we can say Carers are the unsung saints of our society. Sadly as many Carers know, caring can bring with it sleepless nights, physical effort financial worries and stress. There is clearly a serious danger to the Carers own psychological and physical health as they struggle to cope with the stress in caring. We now know, after much research that all carers need some help and support to enable them to continue to care. Therefore to care for those needing care, we must learn to care about Carers in the new Millennium.


GROUP MEETINGS

Our group meets at 8pm on the last Thursday of each month in the Family Life Centre Chapel Street Castlebar. We have a guest speaker and refreshments. The group has established a partnership in caring between the voluntary and statutory agencies and provides professional and financial advice, which is easily accessible to Carers. We have 140 Carers in our group at the moment. There are many more Carers in the community we have yet to identify. Members of the group hail from all corners of County Mayo including: Westport, Mulranny, Newport, Castlebar, Ballinrobe, Balla, Claremorris, Kiltimagh and Ballyhaunis. We host a Christmas dinner each year and a flower show each Easter. Every October we have a mass for our members. Thirty of our Carers take part in the Annual National Respite Weekend and we enjoy a summer outing of a day trip with a dinner-dance and crack. All of the above are free of charge. We run courses on topics of interest to our Carers. Subjects include: counselling skills, assertiveness, bereavement and loss, home nursing, alternative therapies and computer skills.


Contact Us


IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN US OR WOULD LIKE SOMEONE TO TALK TO WHO UNDERSTANDS YOUR SITUATION PLEASE CONTACT:
BERNIE 094 23705 Or EDEL 094 65444 or email: jmck1@unison.ie