{"id":5121,"date":"2023-06-14T06:59:54","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T06:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crossroadscarerk.org\/?p=5121"},"modified":"2023-06-14T09:35:09","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T09:35:09","slug":"its-good-to-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/its-good-to-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Good to Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a difference a Crossroads Care community respite group is making to fathers of children with often profound disabilities and special needs<\/strong><\/p>\n

With all the joy that being a parent brings, it can also be a worrying time. And for those who have a child with a disability, the stress can be all-consuming. As well as having to attend to the everyday needs of their child, parent carers often experience social isolation and poor mental and physical health.<\/p>\n

\"\"Through research and experience, Crossroads Care understands that male carers \u2018care\u2019 somewhat differently to their female counterparts. They are less likely to open up about their caring role, often putting a strain on their relationships and their ability to cope \u2013 ultimately leading to family breakdown.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why four years ago, the charity set up male focused support groups \u2014 Men Who Care and Dads Who Care. Like the other community-based projects that Crossroads runs, they are tailor-made to meet the specific needs of carers. The groups offer regular social activities where carers can meet like-minded carers and seek advice from specialist staff. The aim is to develop a strong informed support network around the men.<\/p>\n

Tristan is one of the original members. His daughter Imogen<\/a>, 6, has Canavan Disease, a rare genetic, life-limiting, life-shortening condition that causes progressive damage to\u00a0nerve cells\u00a0and loss of white matter in the\u00a0brain. It means that Imogen<\/a> is tube-fed and has to rely entirely on her parents to navigate the world.<\/p>\n

Tristan says that the Dads Who Care group has had a big impact not only on his life, but his family\u2019s too.<\/p>\n

\"\"He says: \u2018I started going to the group because I was frustrated that people without special needs kids would say \u201cI know how you feel\u201d. I needed to be among people that really understand and discuss the highs and lows of being a dad to a special needs child. If you need to say how bad you\u2019re feeling, you can.<\/p>\n

\u2018Through the group, I\u2019ve become more educated around the ways in which my family can be supported.<\/p>\n

\u2018The group is warm and welcoming. We started off as strangers but are now friends and our families get together too.\u2019
\nNicola Wilson, Care Manager at Crossroads, adds: \u2018Although a similar group was originally available in Chessington, the logistics and an offer of tea and biscuits didn\u2019t quite work. We adapted what we were offering so that the men now meet in an environment they\u2019re more comfortable in. It\u2019s a pleasure to see the bonds that they\u2019ve formed.\u2019<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for more information about our community respite groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a difference a Crossroads Care community respite group is making to fathers of children with often profound disabilities and special needs With all the joy that being a parent brings, it can also be a worrying time. And for those who have a child with a disability, the stress can be all-consuming. As well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88901,"featured_media":1089310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5121"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1089317,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5121\/revisions\/1089317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1089310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}