New National Services for Carers:

The Carer Gateway Counselling Service is a new, free phone counselling service for Carers, operating nationally from July 1 and proudly managed by CatholicCare.
 
The only criteria to be eligible for the service are as follows:

• The person is in a caring role. This could be caring and/or providing support for a person with a disability, mental health issue, substance misuse issue, dementia or caring for somebody who is frail and/or aged
• The Carer must be over 18-years of age
• The Carer must be unpaid, i.e., they are not employed by an agency as a care giver. There are no restrictions for those on carer payments

 
We encourage all carers to give us a call, no matter what their circumstances, so they can be assessed for eligibility and/or referred onto other services as appropriate.
 
The Counselling Service is open from 8am to 6pm weekdays and Carers can call the service on 1800 422 737 and select option 1 to self-refer.
 
I have attached a flyer plus an A4 brochure which provides information on how to access the Carer Gateway Service. We kindly ask that you provide this material to carers so they too, can learn about the service. If you would like hardcopies of the brochure, please contact us and we will send them out to you.
 
I have also attached a flyer for the Carer Gateway Community Forum which provides online connection and peer support for Carers.  This Service is available for Carers to use from the Carer Gateway website – www.carergateway.gov.au. Many Carers are already participating in the site and gaining support by sharing their experiences.
 
Please call me on 1800 227 301 if you would like any further information about these new Carer support services.