HAS your mother or father, husband or wife, or another relative or friend, become frail and had to go into a care home?

Then you will know from personal experience how difficult it is to come to terms with your change of role and how you may even have feelings of guilt about no longer having been able to cope and having to let your relative go.

You will also know how difficult it is to express your wishes and concerns to the home's staff as you try to ensure that you get the best possible care for your loved one.

You may also need advice about meeting the fees, state benefits which help towards them, the best homes available, your own rights and those of your relative, or on any of a dozen other matters.

It is no comfort to know that there are more than 500,000 older people in the UK living in residential homes and that their relatives and friends have the same anxieties and problems as you.

What you probably feel is that you need somebody to talk to, somebody who can also offer tailor-made help and advice.

That is where the Relatives and Residents Association (R & RA), which is shortly celebrating its 10th anniversary, comes in.

The R & RA offers practical advice, a listening ear, the chance to join a local group of relatives in the same situation, and has the ability to raise issues with homes, local and health authorities and Government departments. It can also offer help to groups or homes.

If you would like more information about gaining the valuable support the R & RA can provide, please write to us as below enclosing a 9x6 sae (31p), or ring 020 7916 6055.

Advice Line

Relatives and Residents

Association

5 Tavistock Place

London

WC1H 9SN