In October 2016, Carers NSW and icare (Insurance & Care NSW) announced a partnership that recognises the critical role of family carers in the years and months following the serious injury of a loved one at work or in a motor vehicle accident or the diagnosis of a family member with a work-related dust diseases.
wecare works with the families of icare participants to increase their knowledge, resilience and wellbeing at any time post injury or post diagnosis, with the exclusion of those living overseas. Two wecare programs are currently available.
The Carer Mentoring Program, for adult family members, is delivered as six to eight mentoring sessions. Experienced supportive mentors work alongside the family carer to provide information and support to strengthen coping strategies. This is a flexible program that delivers the program in ways that best suit the carer; these include, face to face, zoom, skype, telephone sessions or online learning.
- Teacher: Lindy Yoannidis
- wecare Staff: Kim Baynie
Caring for someone who sustains a disabling injury can alter the course of your life in many ways. Unexpectedly becoming a carer can mean changes to your relationships, everyday activities, your work, your spare time, how you think about yourself and, sometimes, how others think about you.
This module looks at six phases of caring that most carers go through.
- wecare Staff: Kim Baynie
Looking after a family member with an acquired disability, interacting with insurance and medical systems, managing the emotions of other family and friends - all of this can leave you little time to think about yourself.
This module explores your own health and wellbeing and why it is as important for you as it is for the person you care for.
- wecare Staff: Kim Baynie
Setting goals is a positive way to focus on what is important to you and to create a vision of how you want your life to be. What is important to you may have changed since the injury to the person you care for.
This module explores the how and why of goal setting.
Resilience is our ability to cope with unexpected changes and challenges in life. Stress and setbacks are a part of life. A series of small challenges, or a traumatic situation such as the injury of a loved one, can be hard to deal with.
This module explores how becoming more resilient in the face of adversity can assist you get yourself into a better place more quickly.
The ripples of change that occur when something traumatic happens impacts relationships in different ways. The intensity of the shared experience may strengthen the bonds of those close to you. On the other hand, focusing all your time and attention on the person injured may increase tensions in your family and make it hard to find the time to maintain other relationships in your life.
This module explores the importance of increasing the support and connections around you.
Meaningful work, paid or unpaid, contributes to our positive sense of wellbeing in many ways. It keeps us busy and engaged with the world, can provide challenges and is also the means to develop existing skills and learn new ones.
This module explores the role work plays in building confidence, social connections and a community of support in times of need.
Advocacy for yourself and others can resolve problems or improve a situation so that people are treated fairly and with respect. It is a skill that can be learnt and developed, yet it is something that is often overlooked by people who take on caring roles.
When we talk about future planning it’s not just end of life planning – it’s all of life planning. Planning for the future is relevant for everyone. It’s about starting conversations and coming up with options to create the best possible life for you and your family.
Effectively communicating with a person who has an acquired brain injury can often be difficult and frustrating. Communication is an area that is commonly identified as one that proves the most challenging in day to day life within a carer's role. It is also an area that can cause an increase of frustration and anger in people with a brain injury when there is a breakdown of daily communication.