Gather My Crew - how to help friends or family in crisis

Life throws up unexpected challenges. A struggling new mum, a sick child or partner, a death in the family, an accident or a natural disaster. Unfortunately, we all know people who have been through these crises, or we have been through it ourselves.

I know from personal experience when my brother in law died unexpectedly at 37 years old, leaving behind a 4 year old son we were all so overwhelmed by his death that when people said 'let us know how we can help' it was hard to know what help we even needed. I wish then that we had known about Gather My Crew. So in order to help anyone who is going through a tough time, I wanted to let you know that help is at hand.

Gather My Crew started when psychologist Susan Palmer wanted to help a friend going through a difficult time and realised how difficult it was to coordinate what tasks need to be done and who was available to help. So she used her clinical knowledge to develop Gather My Crew, a free online calendar and task list that makes it easy to ask for and coordinate the practical help needed during difficult times. 

Gather My Crew connects people to their community of friends and family, so they can access practical support they actually need eg meals, school pick-ups, laundry, dog-walking, whatever that individual person or family needs.

You can use Gather My Crew in two ways:

1. You can gather your own crew if you are going through a difficult time

or

2. If you know someone going through a challenging period, you can gather their crew on their behalf.

Gather My Crew can turn all those lovely but useless bunches of flowers into meals, transport, babysitting and practical support for someone who needs it. Best of all it is easy and free to use. Check out Gather My Crew here and keep it mind the next time you go to say 'what can I do to help'....