BRIGHTON & HOVE CROSSROADS
A service to help people caring at home for disabled friends or relatives of all ages

CROSSROADS - CARING FOR CARERS

Caring at home

Crossroads helps and supports people who care for a disabled, ill or elderly person at home. Its main objectives are:

• to relieve stress in families or individuals responsible for the care of disabled people.


• to avoid having to send the disabled person into hospital or residential care because there are difficulties caring at home.

Crossroads aims to maintain a high standard of care, and works closely alongside other statutory and voluntary services.

WHAT DOES CROSSROADS DO?

Skilled personal care

Crossroads works with disabled people of all ages - from babies through to the very elderly - and with many different disabilities.

Crossroads Carers Support Workers take over the caring role for a few hours to give the usual carer a much-needed break. This can be on an occasional or regular basis, although the scheme is not able to provide an emergency service.

Carers Support Workers can help with getting clients washed and dressed, taking them to the toilet, wheelchair pushing, feeding and other personal care needs. All staff are trained and paid for the work they do.

In Brighton & Hove, home visits are arranged at the times when help is most needed - weekdays, weekends, evenings or sometimes overnight.

WHAT AREA DOES CROSSROADS COVER?

Holding the baby

Brighton Crossroads was established in 1986, followed by Hove Crossroads in 1991. The two schemes merged in October 2007. Brighton & Hove Crossroads now covers the whole of the City of Brighton & Hove, while other locally-based Schemes cover the rest of East and West Sussex.

If you live outside Brighton & Hove, you can contact your local Crossroads Scheme in Sussex as follows:

Hastings and Rother Crossroads

Tel: 01424 444964

E-mail: hastings.rother@crossroads.org.uk

Lewes Area Crossroads

Tel: 01273 483620

E-mail: lewesarea@crossroads.org.uk

Mid Downs Crossroads

Tel: 01403 249090

E-mail: middowns@crossroads.org.uk

Regnum Crossroads (Bognor Regis and Chichester area)

Tel: 01243 864600

E-mail: regnum@crossroads.org.uk .

Seaford, Eastbourne and Wealden Crossroads

Tel: 01323 848422

E-mail: seafordeastbourne.wealden@crossroads.org.uk

Worthing and District Crossroads

Tel: 01903 216678

E-mail: worthing.district@crossroads.org.uk

Elsewhere, for details of your nearest Crossroads Care Scheme, go to the national Crossroads Association. (Tel: 01788 573653; address: 10 Regent Place, Rugby, CV21 2PN. E-mail: communications@crossroads.org.uk)

HOW IS CROSSROADS RUN?

Board meeting

Brighton & Hove Crossroads is both a registered charity (registration no. 1096723) and a company limited by guarantee (registration no. 04616114); it has a locally based, voluntary Board of Trustees which includes carers. The Scheme is a member of the Crossroads Association, the largest voluntary organisation providing help for carers in their own homes, with over 150 member Schemes across the country.

Brighton & Hove Crossroads is staffed by a full-time Manager, a team of four part-time office staff and twenty-five part-time Carers Support Workers.

HOW IS CROSSROADS FUNDED?

Friends at work

Brighton & Hove Crossroads makes no charge to clients. As the Scheme is a charity, many clients choose to make donations. The scheme's main funding comes from the Brighton & Hove Primary Care Trust and from Brighton & Hove City Council's Directorate of Social Care and Health. The Friends of Crossroads group carries out local fundraising on its behalf. The Friends of Crossroads can be contacted via the Brighton & Hove Crossroads office.

If you wish to make a donation please send it to the Treasurer at the office address. Cheques should be made payable to Brighton & Hove Crossroads. Standing order and gift aid forms are available on request.

CROSSROADS - A QUALITY SERVICE

Carers Support Worker receives NVQ level 2 certificate

Brighton & Hove Crossroads is recognised by Brighton and Hove Social Services as an Approved Provider of domiciliary care.

Nationally, Crossroads has a set of quality standards called CROQUET (Crossroads Quality Evaluation Tool, adapted from PQASSO - Practical Quality Assurance System for Small Organisations) covering all aspects of its services and organisation.

Brighton & Hove Crossroads is regularly inspected by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI). Reports of CSCI inspections are available from their website, including reports of recent inspections of Brighton Crossroads and Hove Crossroads.

A copy of the Scheme's Comments and Complaints Procedure is available on request.

ASKING FOR HELP FROM CROSSROADS

Crossroads care

Each family referred to Crossroads is visited to assess the carer's needs. If Crossroads can help, the Manager matches each family with a Carers Support Worker who will, as far as possible, become the regular Carers Support Worker for that family.

All referrals are dealt with in confidence. Regrettably, the scheme often has a waiting list and cannot always take new referrals.

If you, or someone you know, could benefit from Crossroads' help in Brighton & Hove, please contact:

RELATED ORGANISATIONS AND WEB SITES

Playground outing

Other organisations and Web sites which carers may find useful include:

LOCAL
Carers Centre for Brighton & Hove, Community Base, 113 Queens Road, Brighton, BN1 3XG. Tel: 01273 234045. Provides information and support for carers.
AMAZE, Community Base, 113 Queens Road, Brighton, BN1 3XG. Tel: 01273 772289 - gives information, advice and support to parents of children with special needs in Brighton & Hove.
Care for the Carers, Braemar House, 28 St. Leonards Road, Eastbourne, BN21 3UT. Tel: 01323 738390. Information, training courses, outreach service to identify carers' needs.
Brighton and Hove Federation of Disabled People, 3 Rutland Gardens, Hove, BN3 5PA. Tel. 01273 208934.
Age Concern Brighton, Hove and Portslade, 29-31 Prestonville Rd, Brighton, BN1 3TJ57. Tel: 01273 720603.
Brighton and Hove District Multiple Sclerosis Society, 98 Queens Park Rd, Brighton, BN2 2GL. Tel. 01273 699786.
Alzheimer's Disease Society, 206 Church Road, Hove. Tel: 01273 726266. Runs a home-based respite care scheme to relieve carers of people with dementia. Also provides information and support.
East Sussex, Brighton & Hove Health Authority. (No longer exists, but the site still provides useful links to NHS trusts, etc.)
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Brighton and Hove City NHS Primary Care Trust.
Brighton & Hove Online and especially their Community Pages.
eSussex - access point for resources for voluntary and community groups in East Sussex.
Brighton and Hove Community Base. Home to many community and voluntary organisations, including Brighton & Hove Crossroads.
Brighton and Hove City Council.

NATIONAL AND BEYOND
Crossroads Association. Provides general information about the Crossroads organisation nationally, phone numbers of each local scheme, general information for carers, etc.
Carers UK. Provides a campaigning focus to highlight carers' issues.
Charities Aid Foundation Online. A comprehensive list of charity-related information and Web pages.
National Council for Voluntary Organisations. Provides a wide variety of links and information.