Hi Claire,
If you join mudcat instead of posting as a guest, then you can send and receive private messages ( otherwise known as pm ) and i bet a lot of folks here might be glad to send you some CDs of their music.

If you share your computer with others you can log in and out of mudcat to be a guest or not. When someone sends you a pm, you'll see a red number at the top of the screen which you click on to get to the message.

I dont have any advice about what sounds like a frustrating situation with the carers, so I'll just say welcome to mudcat and glad you found it. :)
Oh, and if you like the more informal participative type of folk music, do you have a local folk club where you are?