Bracknell and District Branch

Bracknell & District Branch

3 smiley ladies decorating pottery items at a craft activity

Our Branch offers regular opportunities for carers to get together away from their loved ones in order to share experiences and have fun together. Please check the Diary page for more information.

A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without their support.

As a carer you may be:

caring for a husband, wife, partner, parent, child or friend
living with a person that you care for or you may be helping them to live on their own
providing nursing care or just keeping an eye on someone
providing emotional and practical support
feeling responsible for someone who couldn’t cope without you

How does caring affect your life?

Although for many carers, caring can have positive and rewarding aspects, there are lots of reasons why caring can also leave you needing support.

Caring can have an impact on many aspects of your life — below are some of these topics, and how and where you can access support and information.

Money and benefits

Caring can lead to financial difficulties if you have to give up work to care or are managing on benefits. The aids and equipment needed to help care can add an extra pressure on tight finances.

Carers that face financial pressures will not be able to afford do the things that many of us take for granted, such as buying new or warm clothes, heating the house, house repairs, going on holiday or a short break, running a car or paying a bus fare.

Becoming a carer can feel like a constant battle to access help for you and the person you care for, for example getting the right diagnosis for your partner’s condition, appropriate support for a carer in your family, adaptations to the home, and benefits and other financial help.

Health and wellbeing

Caring can make you physically exhausted – you might be getting up several times in the night as well as caring throughout the day. You might need to lift and support an adult who is a lot heavier than you. You might be juggling caring with looking after the rest of your family and holding down a job.

Caring can leave you emotionally exhausted because of the strain of seeing someone you care about experiencing pain, distress or discomfort.

Caring can lead to stress, depression and other mental health issues. Caring can affect your relationship with your partner or other family members.

If you are caring in a couple you may no longer be able to have the physical or emotional life you had together, nor enjoy shared activities or plan for a future together.

We offer a Yoga for Carers session, please see here for details.

Getting out and about

Caring can be isolating as you may find you can rarely leave the house.

It may be hard to sustain friendships or develop new ones or keep up with interests and activities you may have previously enjoyed.

Useful Carers Contacts

The section below contains the names and titles of organisations which may be able to provide help to you. Click on a title or the + symbol to reveal more details.

Local Carer Support

SIGNAL provides free support, information, guidance, networking, advice and learning to all unpaid (non-professional) carers who care for someone in Bracknell Forest.

At TuVida (Berkshire) we currently support carers and their families across Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham.

In Ascot, Maidenhead and Windsor you can find out about support available for carers from the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

Carer Smart

Offers a discount scheme for carers e.g. from high street retailers, energy providers, lifestyle activities etc. https://carers.org/article/carersmart

Carers Trust

Carers may be able to apply for grants for items or activities that will benefit you in your caring role e.g. for breaks for carers, items in the home, short term care etc.

https://carers.org/article/grants-available-carers-trust