Registering with us as a carer opens the door to a wide range of free support to suit your needs, including:
- Tailored information and support to help you with your caring role
- Opportunities to meet other carers who may have similar experiences to you
- Workshops which provide training and learning on topics such as welfare benefits
- Support and information packs
- Regular newsletter
If you would like more information about any of these services, please call us on 0300 028 8888 or email info@carerssupport.org.uk
If you’re not already subscribed and would like to be added to the mailing list for our monthly updates call our Response Line on 0300 028 8888 of email us at info@carerssupport.org.uk and ask to be added to our subscription list.
Face to Face Groups
Chichester Drug and alcohol face to face support group
An opportunity for drug & alcohol carers to meet face to face for peer support refreshments provided. Held at Chichester Children and Family Centre.
Horsham Drug and alcohol face to face support group
An opportunity for drug & alcohol carers to meet face to face for peer support refreshments provided. Held at Club Room, Horsham Hospital.
Worthing Drug and alcohol face to face support group
An opportunity for drug & alcohol carers to meet face to face for peer support refreshments provided. Held at the Worthing Quaker House.
Crawley Drug and alcohol face to face support group
An opportunity for drug & alcohol carers to meet face to face for peer support refreshments provided. Held at Longley Room,The Orchard.
Please note - Booking is not essential but advised.
Online Carer Groups
Join our friendly group for family and friend carers of people who use Drugs and/or Alcohol, for support, information and to chat to others and share experiences.
Carer Walking Groups
The Carers Support West Sussex Drug and Alcohol team are delighted to invite you to join us for a gentle walk! This offers an opportunity to meet up with other carers affected by someone else’s drinking or drug taking and talk as we walk.
County Line drug dealing is the practice of metropolitan crime gangs supplying drugs in Sussex towns. Dealers exploit the vulnerable and often take over their properties in order to store and deal drugs at the address – this is known as cuckooing. Click here for more information.
A guide to family support services: For those with a family member struggling with harmful drinking life can be extremely difficult. This fact sheet provides a list of the main organisations in the UK providing support for families.
Supporting your partner of loved one Harmful drinking can cause significant issues not only for the drinker, but also for members of their family in the form of health problems, financial worries, relationship breakdown and parenting difficulties.
Change Grow Live (CGL) There for you if you need help with challenges including drugs or alcohol, trouble with housing, domestic abuse, or your mental and physical wellbeing. Our services are free and confidential. We also have an online chat for families and friends.
Drink Coach is a website and downloadable app which can help track and change your drinking. You can also take a short test to measure your drinking and get coaching to support you through any changes.
Useful Information
Click to download information on a range of subjects to support you when caring for someone with a drug or alcohol issue.
A brief guide for supporting a friend, relative or partner who is having treatment to help with a drug or alcohol problem
A guide for parents looking at living with a drug user, understanding treatments, how to help your child and useful organisations
Tips and strategies for surviving some else’s drug or alcohol use
An Adfam information source. Families of drug or alcohol users can set boundaries to limit the impact of a substance user’s behaviour. Effective boundaries can assert the needs or rights of families so they feel more secure and respected.
Another Adfam information source on dealing with conflict
The different changes someone with a drug or alcohol dependency can go through
Useful Links
Action on Addiction is the UK’s only charity working across the addiction field in treatment, professional education to honours degree level, support for families and children, research, and campaigns.
Al-Anon Family Groups provide support to anyone whose life is, or has been, affected by someone else’s drinking, regardless of whether that person is still drinking or not.
Change, Grow, Live provide help and support to adults, children, young people and families. Their services cover a wide variety of areas including health and wellbeing, substance use, mental health, criminal justice, domestic abuse and homelessness.
Change, Grow, Live Children and Young Persons Therapeutic Service - West Sussex
FRANK is a national drug education service jointly established by the Department of Health and Home Office of the British government in 2003. It is intended to reduce the use of both legal and illegal drugs by educating teenagers and adolescents about the potential effects of drugs and alcohol.
West Sussex Young Carers supports young carers aged 5-18 with information, support, advice and signposting.
The National Association for Children of Alcoholics provides information, advice and support for everyone affected by a parent’s drinking.
Adfam is the national charity working to improve life for families affected by drugs and alcohol.
DrugFAM support families, friends and partners who are struggling to cope with a loved one’s addiction to drugs or alcohol and those who have been bereaved by addiction or related causes.
Families Anonymous is a world-wide fellowship of family members and friends affected by another’s abuse of mind-altering substances, or related behavioural problems.
West Sussex Wellbeing can help you find local wellbeing information and services. You can also get support for things like getting your family fitter, doing some regular exercise, dealing with stress, kicking a habit, or simply improving your general wellbeing.
Don't Bottle it up Take the Alcohol Test to work out how risky your drinking is, access personalised advice online and find out where you can get support locally.
Nacoa helping everyone affected by a parents drinking
Alcohol Wellbeing offers support for people who are worried and recognise that their drinking has increased, but who are not dependent. This is a free and confidential service. You can have up to six sessions with our Wellbeing Alcohol Advisor, trained in extended brief interventions, via telephone, video link or walk n talk sessions - in line with government guidelines around Covid
Sussex Prisoner Families supports local families to cope emotionally and practically with the imprisonment of a loved-one.
Gscene local LGBT+ organisations
DDA A peer support fellowship that supports people with a combination of mental health issues and addiction/substance/alcohol misuse (otherwise known as a Dual Diagnosis).
Our Services
