Carers of disabled children urged to "Tell a friend"

Shared Care Network is asking short break carers and those working with disabled children to 'Tell a Friend' about opportunities to provide short breaks.

The charity hopes that by enlisting the help of short break carers to recruit their friends, more disabled children will benefit from short breaks. A recent survey found that word of mouth was the way 1 in 3 short break carers heard about short breaks. Nearly 1 in 4 already knew someone doing it and 3 in 4 had a connection with disability.

To help short break carers "Tell a Friend" Shared Care Network is giving them a free DVD 'Be the BIG Difference!' to show their friends what they do and why they do it. Carers can also sign up to Shared Care Network's Facebook campaign to spread the word.

To receive a DVD carers need to sign up to the national short breaks network at http://www.sharedcarenetwork.org.uk/title/short_break_carers

The network provides free and subsidised training, information and networking opportunities to people providing short breaks.

Short films about opportunities to provide short breaks can be viewed at http://www.theBIGdifference.org.uk where you can meet befrienders, sitters, family-based carers, inclusion workers and residential centre workers as well as the disabled children and young people they support.

Candy Smith, Shared Care Network's CEO said "Being a short break carer is a really rewarding and enjoyable role to have in a disabled child's life and more people are urgently needed. We hope as a result of the campaign more people will find out how they can use their skills and experience to be the BIG Difference to a disabled child and their family".

For more information about the Short Breaks Network contact Lee Cox on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.