Carers look after family members, partners and close friends who need help due to disability, mental health issues, life limiting or life-long conditions, addiction and many other issues. At VOCAL we offer a matrix of support to ensure that carers are resilient, knowledgeable and in the best possible physical and mental health to undertake their caring role. Carers often experience, isolation, poor health, exhaustion, and financial hardship because of the need to provide extra care to another person. This includes people looking after a partner with dementia, a child with a disability, a terminally ill friend to give just a few examples. Many sacrifice paid employment and social and community links to focus on caring. VOCAL provides person-centred advice, training, specialist surgeries, wellbeing and counselling for carers regardless of their age or background. Our services are free and we provide advice and support to over 10,000 carers in Edinburgh and Lothian each year.