Family and Carers
What Else can we offer?
We recognise that people who are close to you may also require support and our service can provide this. We do this for them to better support you. We can offer this support to your family or those you view as carers.
We will also work alongside the other services involved in you care to help them to better understand and respond to your difficulties.
Personality” refers to the individual ways we think, feel and behave. Due to life experiences, some people can develop difficulties in these areas. If the difficulties are causing great distress, are long-lasting and impact on many aspects of life, then help may be needed. The Personality Disorder Hub works with people who engage in severe and longstanding personality difficulties and engage in behaviours that place them at high risk of harm.
- Problems managing emotions
- Managing urges to act quickly
- Self-harm and suicidal thoughts
- Making and keeping healthy relationships
- Distressing memories about past events
The importance of family and Carers
At the Personality Disorder Hub team, we understand that family, friends and carers play an important role in supporting people who find it difficult to manage emotions and/or relationships. Additionally, the people who use our service find it helpful if family, friends and carers have a better understanding of their difficulties and understand ‘what might help’. Family, friends and carers often want to help but worry about saying ‘the right thing’ or they are unsure what to do for the best. We know that worry and/or conflict in relationships can have an impact on communication and this often makes things worse.
What does the Hub Team offer for Family and Carers?
We have a Family Therapist offering a range of Family and Carer interventions. This includes offering support and advice, group intervention, family work and family/couples therapy. We offer the following interventions:
Getting to know you meeting?
Caring for someone who has emotional and relational difficulties can be stressful and this can impact your own health and wellbeing and cab impact your own health and wellbeing. At Hub Team we offer a “Getting to know you” meeting which helps identify carers and family needs. We can provide information and signpost you to the most appropriate services to help.
Cumbria Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust has online resources for family and carers including ‘Carers Promise’ information and access to a Carers Card. This information can be found on https://www.cntw.nhs.uk/resource-library/carers-resources/
Family and Carers Group
The group provides information and education about emotional and relational difficulties so that people can understand and support in more helpful ways. Sessions are for to family and carers only and include information on understanding personality development, emotions and their function and strategies to build healthy relationships including validation techniques. At present the group runs at Benfield House and provides an opportunity to meet other families and carers who might be in similar situations which can be very helpful.
Family or Couples Therapy
Family and Systemic Psychotherapy – also known as family therapy – can help those in close relationships to better understand and support each other. It enables family members to express and explore difficult thoughts and emotions safely, understand each other’s experiences and views, appreciate each other’s needs, build on family strengths, and work together to make useful changes in their relationships and their lives.
If you think you may benefit from Family and Carer work please contact the Hub team on (email and/or phone number) and we can arrange a meeting to discuss this with you.