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National Freephone Careline
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Careline hours are 9am to 5:30pm Monday to Thursday and 9am to 5pm on Friday.
Since 2016, the Samaritans have kindly taken calls from family carers who wish to speak to someone outside of these hours.
We are always striving to make our supports and services for family carers better and to do this, we are asking for your honest opinion on the Careline service. To access the Careline survey, simply click here.
Family Carers Ireland offers a confidential, friendly and supportive National Freephone Careline on 1800 24 07 24.
Our experienced and trained staff and volunteers offer a listening ear and practical guidance for family carers who care for loved ones with physical or intellectual disabilities, frail older people, those with palliative care needs or those living with chronic illnesses, mental ill-health or addiction.
Our Careline team offer practical information, guidance and referrals on a range of topics including:
Carer’s Allowance
Carer’s Benefit
Carer’s Support Grant
Family Carers Ireland services including counselling, respite and training
Carer Support Groups
Membership of Family Carers Ireland
Supports available from your local authority, HSE and Department of Social Protection
The Careline Team can signpost family carers who require additional support to Support Centres located throughout the country.
National Freephone Careline Standards
Family Carers Ireland's National Freephone Careline has been awarded a quality standard accreditation by The Helplines Partnership.
The Helplines Standard is a nationally recognised quality standard which defines and accredits best practice in helpline work.
The Helplines Partnership is a membership organisation that aims to promote excellence in communications by evaluating services and promoting best practice to meet service users’ needs.
Yes, all calls from Irish landlines and mobiles are free of charge.
Yes, repeat callers are welcome to call us on the Careline. However, should you require ongoing support we may suggest you link in with your local Carer Support Manager.
We’re sorry you can’t get through to us at the moment. Our Careline can get busy, so if you cannot get through immediately here are some suggestions for what to do:
• Leave a voicemail: You may leave a voicemail with your contact details and one of our Careline Team will call you back within one working day.
• Submit an online enquiry: You may submit your enquiry to us via our website here. A member of the FCI team will respond to your enquiry within 3 working days.
Confidentiality and data protection
Our Careline is confidential. This means we will not share your personal details with anyone outside of Contact without your permission.
There are a few exceptional situations where we may have to breach confidentiality and pass on your details without your consent.
Situations where we might need to break confidentiality:
• A child is at risk of harm.
• A vulnerable adult is at risk of harm.
• A terrorist threat has been made.
• We have been ordered to share information with the courts.
• A person poses a serious risk to others.
• A person is threatening or abusing staff or preventing the helpline service from being delivered to others.
If a decision is made to break confidentiality, we will make reasonable effort to keep your informed of what we intend to do.
We are committed to protecting your privacy. Whenever you share personal data with us we aim to be clear with you, and not to do anything with your data that you wouldn’t reasonably expect us to do.
We will never sell your personal data to other organisations and will only ever share it in appropriate, legal or exceptional circumstances. View our privacy policy here.
To ensure the quality and consistency of our services, managers may listen in to calls and check emails from time to time.
We care about the experience you have with us, so whether it is good or bad, we want to hear from you. When you tell us what you think, it helps us identify good and bad practice and to improve what we do. You can find more details on providing feedback here.