Carers Week Live Chat // What do you wish you knew when you were a new 'carer' // Session closed

[NikNik]

Hi all,

This week is Carers Week.

Thursday 15 October, we want to open a discussion about what you wish you knew when you were new to the role of a carer.

We will be joined by Mel, who is a carer and peer support worker from HelpingMinds - who will share her knowledge, experience and tips.

If you are new to being a carer for a family member or friend, please join us to pick up some points and ask questions.

Click 'like' if we will see you here.

We hope to see you here at 7pm AEST!

[NikNik]

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to our special Carers Week edition of Topic Thursday.

Tonight the topic us ‘What I wish I knew when I became a carer’. We are joined by @Kisia carer and peer worker at HelpingMinds!

Tonight is an opportunity to ask questions, share your insights and generally have a chat. I think we all have something to contribute to this discussion, regardless how long we have identified ourselves as carers for.

So firstly – welcome Kisia! Thanks for joining us. Are you able to tell us a bit about yourself?

[Kisia]

Thanks @NikNik I was having some technical difficulties, totally not a good Gen Y representative! But Im online now 🙂 

Talking about self-care I certainly think my 5 min walk before this session was a good self-care effort

[Kisia]

And yes, about me. So I am a COPMI, which means I am a Child Of a Parent who has a Mental Illness. For me that means I became a young carer and continue to care for my mum who has a mental illness. It also means the stress of the things we were expreincing lead to me developing my own mental health issues. I now get to apply these experiences as a Carer Peer Support worker with HelpingMinds in WA. 

[NikNik]

YAY - up and running!!!

Did you want to start by giving people some background about yourself @Kisia ?

Also - others who have joined us tonight, feel free to intro yourselves too.

[YogaforCarers]

Looking forward to hearing more. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us. I'm working with a support group for carers and we find a lot of people don't know where to get information about how to care for themselves. So this forum is great. 

[Janna]

Hi Janna here.  I'm online and joining in.

[Kisia]

Thanks @YogaforCarers was there something in particular you were interested in hearing about? When I first started to hear about self-care for carers I had many questions. 

[Kisia]

Hi @Janna welcome to the forum. Did you have some ideas of self-care as a carer? I found it really hard initiailly to get an understanding of what self care was, mostly because I couldnt immaging spending a full 30 minutes looking after myself - now I realise the little things matter too - like taking a few breaths, or making sure I have a warm drink ready if I know I am going to have a difficult conversation with my mum who I care for. 

[MissyD]

Hello have recently become a temporary carer (as in the last 48 hours) for a cousin of my husband who has been diagnosed with bi polar. Would like to know any tips on how to deal with them, is there any reasoning?