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Looking After Me - Free EPP course

Hi my name is Latitia and I would like to tell you about a fabulous course for carers run by the EPP (the Expert Patients Programme Community Company) … and the best thing of all is – it is ABSOLUTELY FREE to attend ….

I first found out about the course purely by chance when I attended a carers forum last year … I spoke to one of the course representatives at the forum and they put my name down and gave me some leaflets on the course. It all sounded very interesting, but I am a bit of a cynic, and thought, hey I won't hear from them again or nothing will probably come of it anyhow. As a carer I have become used to being let down by professionals, social services and the like and broken promises are something I come to expect.

Then one day I was sorting out a pile of papers on my bedroom floor and I came across the leaflets, I read through them again and thought, hey, I will give them a buzz and send a quick e-mail asking about when the next course starts.

Only a few weeks passed and I was sent an e-mail with details of the next course and told by the course administrator that when they had enough participants to run the next course in my area they would let me know.

One of the things I particularly liked about the course was that I could go along for the induction, hear about the course and if I felt it wasn’t for me after that there would be no pressure to continue. I liked that, as not feeling too pressured with my hectic schedule was important to me.

I don’t want to dwell too much about my own particular carer situation as the person I care for wishes to remain anonymous and doesn’t want me to talk about their condition, but I have cared for a close relative for many years now and during this time I became very unwell myself. After two operations and developing depression, I sought out help as I could no longer care adequately for my relative. I would urge other carers not to wait till they get to my stage but to seek out help earlier and grab every chance they can of support. However small or insignificant that help appears to be at the time. Every little helps and many hands make light work is so true a saying.

The EPP run courses not only for carers but for people overcoming a long term illness or disability and encourage you to learn life skills and coping strategies that will enable you to manage your illness and your life better. They are all run by volunteers and people just like YOU and ME … who have benefitted from an EPP course themselves and wish to pass on those valuable life skills to others. Everyone on the particular course I am attending has different problems but also we all have similar problems to share and surprisingly common issues to discuss, for example managing stress and learning to say NO!! I am getting better at that now ....

I am still attending my course and I can honestly say that taking that initial first step and having the courage to walk through that door that first day was the best thing I have ever done. When I first arrived on the course I was very quiet and shy and didn’t want to say much, but by week two I had a spring in my step and a more positive outlook. And I really look forward to the following week and what I will learn.

We were all encouraged to participate equally and anything we divulged in the room was to remain confidential. That was a very important aspect of the course for me as I would not have felt comfortable talking about very personal aspects of my life if I felt it was going to be repeated outside of those four walls.

It is still early days for me on the course, but already we have covered exercise, relaxation techniques, coping strategies, ways of handling the stress in our lives and week by week we do an action plan and goals that we set ourselves. The following week we go over if we have or have not achieved our goals we set for ourselves and if not we discuss ways in which we can improve things for the following week.

Carers very often forget their own needs as they are too busy caring for others but it is vitally important for us to have the necessary life skills and learning tools to take optimum care of ourselves in order for us to cope with the demands of caring which is twenty-four-seven...

I will leave you the details of the web address for the course at the bottom of my story and I urge you to give it a whirl and make contact with EPP. Find the NEW YOU or the OLD YOU rekindled!! What have you got to lose!!

All of the members on our course are friendly and very supportive and they are just like YOU and ME ….. no-one is made to feel that what they have to say is unimportant and we were all given an excellent free book which has helpful tools and coping strategies for us to take away with us. There are useful leaflets and booklets and even free coffee/tea and yummy biscuits …… The course lasts for two and a half hours one day a week for several weeks, but I would urge anyone who wishes to give it a go to see the course through to the end to get the full benefits… I certainly will!!

You can be referred by your GP or make contact either by web or phone …. So don’t waste anymore time contact EPP today and change your life for the better.

Good luck if you attend an EPP course in your area and to venturing on a new journey to discover a better quality of life.

Best Wishes,

Latitia

Make contact with EPP on www.expertpatients.co.uk for details in your area

Comment from an EPP course participant: “the course enabled me to move on with my life.”

Looking After Me - Free EPP course

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