Thanks to all the Support Collective members, supporters and funders, our training and creative partners, and all the wonderful and inspiring carers. We hope you have a peaceful holiday and a happy new year.
Meetups
In November the Support Collective hosted a conversation at Residential at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art this provided opportunity to share experiences of navigating health and social care systems nationwide. Local issues were reflected nationally, the impact on lives of decades of underinvestment in health and social care was palpable, yet the spirit of support was incredibly powerful. We are very grateful to all the carers who shared their stories, offered advice and support to each other.
Huge thanks to Dee and Miguel at the De La Warr Pavilion who hosted December’s Creative Carers Workshop. We had a tour of the current exhibition, followed by fun creative activities, and some downtime relaxing in the hammocks.
We are very grateful to Madeleine, Liz, and Lise, third year students at the Shiatsu College, who created a serene space in the rooftop foyer overlooking the sea for our carers to experience Shiatsu which promotes a sense of relaxation and wellbeing; our carers were demonstrably relaxed and very smiley after the treatment and we had some lovely feedback.
‘Thank you for the welcoming coffee and organising a look around the exhibition, along with some fun drawing, a relaxing hammock time and wonderful shiatsu massage.
It was great to have some time away, meet some new faces and healthy reminder of how liberating it is to give yourself some quality time off from full-time caring and working.’
We look forward to arranging some more Creative Carers Workshop in the new year.
Our final Online Meetup of the year is online on Tuesday 19th December at 2pm – 3.30pm please contact [email protected] if you would like to join.
Training
Please visit our training page to view our programme for 2024 which includes:
The National Autistic Society: Sensory Considerations
Wednesday 31st January (part 1) & Wednesday 7th February (part 2): 10am – 2pm
The National Autistic Society: Understanding Stress and Anxiety in Autism
Monday 26th February (part 1) & Tuesday 27th (part 2) February 2024: 9.30am – 1pm.
Working with & supporting Pathological Demand Avoidance young people & adults – PDA Society
Thursday 7th March: 9.30am – 1pm.
Thanks to our funders we can offer these learning opportunities free of charge to caregivers and personal assistants (employed via a personal budget).