If you have any questions about Conversing Care or need reassurance on how services work, below are comprehensive answers to questions we hear frequently.
If we’ve missed anything, report it by clicking here.
Who We Are
What is “Conversing Care”?
Conversing Care (Charitable Group) is run by a handful of volunteers, providing free and confidential emotional support for anyone in a distressing situation or struggling with their mental health, wellbeing or lacking support.
We also support individuals who may be experiencing a mental health crisis, thinking about hurting themselves or ending their own life.
Who works at Conversing Care?
Everyone at Conversing Care are volunteers, dedicating their time to support others who are struggling.
We are all trained in different communication skills, have experience in the Health & Social Care sector and have robust procedures in place to support anyone needing our “Care”.
All volunteers are police checked, vetted and monitored, so you can be rest assured the person you will be speaking to at Conversing Care is generally a decent, well-rounded individual who generally cares about you and your wellbeing.
How can Conversing Care help me?
Emotional support can help people in all sorts of ways. The main response we get is, “I needed to offload” or “Process” something which is personally very difficult.
We may not always hold the answers but our volunteers will never judge you and are always willing to listen to anything which is on your mind.
We help people better manage their difficulties by:
- Being consistent and accessible with our approach, so our service users feel they have support from another person who cares for their wellbeing.
- Listening to them, acknowledging what they’re struggling with and being responsive to their needs.
- Being resourceful with coping strategies and tools individuals can use to feel more confident in being robust and resilient to their problems.
About Our Services
Who can use Conversing Care services?
If you’re over the age of 18, live in Kent and struggling to cope in some way – You can use Conversing Care.
If you live outside the Kent & Medway area, you can still contact us but we won’t be able to provide additional support as we won’t know what resources are available in your local area.
Are you a free and confidential service?
Yes.
Everything we do at Conversing Care is completely free to use and any data or information we receive is used only to provide a safe and consistent service.
The only time we would share your information if we had serious concerns about your safety or wellbeing. This is known as ‘safeguarding’.
If you would like to know more about how we use your data, please visit our Privacy page.
Can I call Conversing Care?
Sort of. We arrange a time and a date before we call you.
You can ask us to call you by sending us an email or message. We call this process, “Callback Request”.
A volunteer will contact you using a ‘Withheld number’. Make sure your phone can receive these sorts of phone numbers.
Email: chat@conversingcare.org
Response time: 24 — 72 hours
Can I message you on social media?
Yes. You can send us a message on any of our official social media pages to speak to a trained volunteer about whatever you’re struggling with. You can message us on Facebook or Instagram.
We can’t provide instant text support through social media but we intend to respond within hours of receiving a new message.
Response time: 24 — 48 hours
Can I send you an email?
Yes.
If you like to write and reflect on things you are going through, you can write us an email and one of our trained volunteers will get back to you as soon as possible.
Email: chat@conversingcare.org
Response time: 24 — 48 hours
Why am I waiting for a response?
We are a very small charity. Even though we have a volunteer available every day, that doesn’t mean they are online when you are. Leave a message and we will get back to you within 24 hours.
If we are experiencing high demand and we don’t meet our 24 hour target, don’t panic. We will always respond as soon as a volunteer becomes available
Please feel free to contact us again if there is a time breach or contact us another way.
I am worried about someone else — what should I do?
Always call 999 in an emergency.
If you are unsure on what type of support someone needs, use our Urgent Help guide and follow each step.
If you are with someone having suicidal thoughts, read this information.
If you are contacting us on behalf of someone else, we need written or verbal consent from that person in order to provide support.
For Professionals, Experts & Business
I’m a professional, can I signpost to your service?
Yes.
If you are contacting us on behalf of someone else, we need written or verbal consent from that person in order to provide support.
Please provide your professional details and organisation information (NHS, Charity, Bizz).
Write us an email: chat@conversingcare.org
Response time: 24 — 48 hours
I am a professional or expert, can I contact or share information with you?
Yes.
We welcome dialog with professionals or organisations whose expertees can benefit our cause and service users.
For example, your insight might help us too: Deploy resources better, Recruit volunteers more effectively, Source funding opportunities, etc.
Share information with us: info@conversingcare.org.
I am a business, can I trade with you?
As a charity and the way we’re structured means cost efficiency is vital.
This means we like a deal! But outside what we’ve already planned and costed, if you haven’t heard from us already, we’re probably not interested.
Please do not spam us with products or try to sell us something we are clearly not in the market for. We get a lot of emails and they can be incredibly important and time sensitive. Filtering spam out of the inbox literally slows us down, saving lives.
How you can support Conversing Care
Donate or fundraise!
For non-profits, “money doesn’t grow on trees”. That’s why your support matters so much.
To see how much good a few quid can do: Please visit the Donate page.
If you could do more, fundraising goes a long way in helping us build bigger and better changes to our service because we can plan further into the future.
For all donation and fundraising enquiries, please contact give@conversingcare.org.
Volunteer! Online and on-foot!
We can’t offer human interaction without humans. That’s where you come in, if you’re not a robot.
From full-time to part-time, flexible to fixed, we offer a variety of volunteering opportunities.
To see how you could fit saving lives into your busy schedule: Visit the Volunteer webpage.
For more information about volunteering: volunteer@conversingcare.org.
Don’t forget social media!
Unlike other charities, we know social media has a role to play when it comes to delivering services and engaging with local communities.
We need all the help we can get when it comes down to:
- Managing, creating and posting content on Conversing Care social media accounts.
- Engaging users and growing individual profiles.
- Providing services through social media messaging.
If you have any social media skills, we need your help to reach those most in need. If you can help, visit the volunteer page or email volunteer@conversingcare.org.
Also, if you have a large audience on a social media platform, we would most definitely like to hear from you via info@conversingcare.org or a social media message.