Contact a Family - for families with disabled children: information on rare syndromes and disorders

Across the UK, a child is diagnosed with a severe disability every 25 minutes. Although some children need hospital care, 98% of disabled children live at home with a parent or other family member who may not have expected to be in this position but who has quickly had to become an expert.

When parents find out that their child is disabled they feel isolated and alone because usually they don't know anyone else facing the same problems. They want contact with another family who've been through a similar experience and they want information about their child's disability.

Contact a Family is the only UK-wide charity providing advice, information and support to the parents of all disabled children - no matter what their disability or health condition. We also enable parents to get in contact with other families, both on a local and national basis. Each year we reach at least 275,000 families.

Marathon Marvels

Contact a Family would like to say well done and a huge thank you to all the runners who took part in the London Marathon 2008 in aid of families of disabled children.

A group of 11 runners took to the 26 mile course around London on Sunday on behalf of Contact a Family.

Thank you to all those people for your fantastic athletic and fundraising achievements. We know that taking part in the marathon takes months of preparation, training and commitment, so well done on all extraordinary efforts.

Runners: Catherine Baran, Sue Clark, Clemmie Coltart, Max Davies, Bertrand Fried, Stephen Glass, Matthew Grist, Keith Lambden, Sarah Nurse, Adam Kenny-Singh, Sue Whiteley and Jody Wood.

If you would like to take part in the London Marathon 2009 or any other fundraising event in aid of Contact a Family Tel: 020 7608 8733 or visit Web: http://www.cafamily.org.uk/events.html

Victory for families of disabled children

Contact a Family welcomes the government’s move to impose a duty on local authorities to provide short breaks services for families of disabled children.

The government has made an amendment to the Children and Young Person’s Bill to make it a legal obligation for councils to give parents a break from their caring responsibilities.

Mark Robertson, Contact a Family’s Head of Information and Publications, said: “This marks a major victory for families of disabled children. Parents have been telling us for years that access to short breaks is their number one priority. It helps maintain family relationships between siblings and parents as well as giving disabled children the opportunity to enjoy time away from the home setting.

“Unfortunately access to a good short breaks service has been a postcode lottery with many families having to reach breaking point before being offered any support. This amendment along with the £370million investment for short breaks services under the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme, will go some way towards our ultimate wish, that every family caring for a disabled child no matter where they live in the UK has a vital respite service available to them.”

We offer a range of services to support families including a freephone helpline and a number of offices, staff and volunteers around the UK. We also provide information to professionals and developmental advice to support groups. Most of our information materials can be found on this website, others will need to be ordered. We also work to influence services and have campaigns that aim to improve the quality of life for families with disabled children.

Contact a Family, 209-211 City Road, London EC1V 1JN
Tel: 020 7608 8700 Fax: 020 7608 8701
Helpline 0808 808 3555 or Textphone 0808 808 3556 Freephone for parents and families (Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm & Mon, 5.30-7.30pm)
e-mail: info@cafamily.org.uk

Marathon Marvels

Victory for families of disabled children

Survey of parents with disabled children who are separated or divorced