Someone Like Me is a volunteer delivered telephone peer support service. All our volunteers are, or have been, kinship carers themselves so know the issues and difficulties you might be facing. They offer emotional support to kinship carers who need a listening ear from someone who understands what they are going through.
How can I sign up for the Someone Like Me peer support service?
Fill in an online registration form here.
What can I use the Someone Like Me peer support service for?
Whether you have just taken on the care of a relative’s child or have been looking after them for a while and are going through a difficult patch, you can use the service to talk to a trained volunteer about your situation and how you are feeling. They are there to listen when you need to talk. Volunteers are trained to listen and provide emotional support, if you need any advice regarding your circumstances, you will be referred back to the Advice Line.
How is it different to the Grandparents Plus Advice Line?
The Grandparents Plus advice service is staffed by professional advisers who are trained in the provision of specialist advice on a wide range of issues.
Our Someone Like Me volunteers cannot provide advice but are there to help other kinship carers by offering emotional support and, where appropriate, sharing experiences and ways of coping with some of the challenges being a kinship carer brings.
Is the service confidential?
The service is completely confidential unless there are concerns about the safety of an individual. In such circumstances it may be necessary to share information with a third party but, wherever possible, we will seek consent to do so.
How does the Someone Like Me service work?
On request, kinship carers receive a one-off call from a Someone Like Me volunteer to offer emotional support and, where appropriate, signpost to other services and support. We aim to call kinship carers within a week of receiving the request but at busy times, there may be a delay. Calls can be made any time, any day of the week, at a time that is convenient to you, when there is a volunteer available.
Kinship carers can use the service more than once but will not necessarily speak to the same volunteer.
