Agenda item

Age UK - Getting Older with a Disability

Minutes:

Christine introduced her and Wendy as Aging Well Co-ordinators.  They worked with anyone over the age of 65 years.  They had a relatively new project working with other providers such as NHFT, WNC, Primary Care, Carers and specific organisations such as Alzheimer’s.    The individual would have a 45 minute consultation with a GP, either face to face or virtually.  Someone would visit the home with a laptop if required.  The consultation would look at the person as a whole and the wider team could bring their skills to get the support required.  The person would be able to ask whatever they wanted, there would be a medication review, adaptations could be looked at and other things that would help that person live a better life.   There would be a lead GP for a group of Surgeries and it would be a person who had expressed a desire to do this.  There was no charge for this service.

 

Surgeries would be looking at their patient list to try and identify those they had not seen for ages, nurses and other health practitioners could refer or individuals could self-refer.  This way of working had started in October and was a new way of agencies working together.  Christine stated they were very keen to learn what groups and activities were going on so they could signpost and also to raise awareness of the project.

 

Age UK Northants activities were just getting going again after Covid – there were walking groups for those with mobility issues, including 1 to 1 walks.  Currently establishing what else was out there to refer people to, also some people needed support to start attending groups as they did not have the confidence to go on their own.

 

Carl stated that rural communities were impacted more, especially around isolation, due to transport issues, there was the Door2Door service but it only operated within Northampton.  Christine responded that they had recently discussed this very issue and there was some money in the pot but they needed to understand what and where the demand was.

 

Age UK Northamptonshire had, on occasions, to step in to help people where repairs were concerned and also assist with benefits.  Martin stated that Covid had had a negative effect with the repairs and they were trying to get back on track but things might take a bit longer than pre-Covid.

 

There were a lot of information guides and factsheets available on the website which were also available to order as paper copies and a magazine called Engage.  The Factsheets and Guides can be accessed through the link below.  Indexes are attached to the minutes.  The guides were easy read and available in large print and audio format.

Age UK factsheets and information guides | Age UK

 

If anyone would like more information about Age UK Northamptonshire, or have someone talk at their group, please contact Pandora in the first instance - pandora.kenyon@ageuknorthants.org.uk

or tel 01604 611200.  They would always go and talk to groups when invited which could lead on to more confidential talks with individuals.

 

Christine also explained the history behind Age UK– prior to 2011 there had been 2 charities Help the Aged and Age Concern which did much the same service but did not work together.  They then merged to become Age UK.  There were about 140-150 different Age UK’s and Age UK Northamptonshire was about the 7th largest.  Any donations to Age UK Northamptonshire should be made to that organisation, not the national Age UK.