A new project tackles social isolation by building links between older and learning-disabled people and their neighbourhoods
Tue 5 Feb 2019 09.59 GMT
Last modified on Thu 7 Feb 2019 08.46 GMT
Paul Williams, who has a mild learning disability, was a champion runner in his youth. After many years in institutional care, however, he rarely mentioned his athletic past. But staff at the south Londoner’s sheltered housing scheme encouraged him to dig out his medals and handwritten race records.
Williams opened up and his confidence grew. Just over a year ago, he gave a motivational talk at a community centre and displayed his medals. He is now working on his life story with a local journalist who volunteers to spend time with Williams.
Williams, his care organisation and volunteer are part of the Time to Connect community inclusion project. This encourages stronger links between people using care services and their neighbourhoods, and ensures they become more active citizens. Time To Connect is a partnership between social inclusion charity NDTi (National Development Team for Inclusion) and Timebanking UK, the national charity that helps people to share time and skills.
Clive Brown, activities officer at Williams’ care provider Notting Hill Genesis, is championing the drive at three of the organisation’s homes in south London. “The project reconnects people, it reminds them there’s still a community out there and they’re not just part of a residential scheme,” he says. “For Paul, it’s like the light’s come back on.”
The programme involves seven care providers in Greater Manchester, Gloucestershire and Lambeth and Southwark in London. Volunteers offer help though local time banks. The project is a response to social isolation, which is a major health concern, according to the Campaign to End Loneliness. It focuses on older and learning disabled people because there are 1.2 million chronically lonely older people in the UK and almost one in three young learning disabled people spend less than one hour outside their home on Saturdays, according to Mencap.
The three-year project started in February 2017. Madeline Cooper-Ueki, NDTi’s learning disabilities programme lead, says it “is about recognising that we need to support people to see that they have something to offer”. She says the scheme, supported by £700,000 from the Big Lottery Fund, contrasts with traditional approaches to care: “There’s a reciprocal approach and we’re focusing on people [in care] connecting with ordinary people – not just going to specialist services like a learning disability swimming club … we try to think beyond labels.”
NDTi’s training for senior managers and care workers includes how to identify people’s aims or strengths so they might contribute their skills or interests to their community.
So far, Time to Connect has involved 265 people: 92 care staff, 102 older people, 39 learning disabled people, 10 people with mental health support needs and 22 time bank members. An interim report describes positive outcomes for all participants: “The evaluation found numerous examples of increased confidence and motivation among care staff as well as changes to attitudes and behaviour. This is in turn leading to increased opportunities for people to connect with their communities.”
Benefits for care providers include “better links with other organisations, businesses and services in the area”. The report adds that volunteers boost their friendship networks and community venues become more welcoming for people with different abilities and needs.
A 2018 report by regulator the Care Quality Commission into London-based Southside Partnership Domiciliary Care Agency noted the impact of participating in Time to Connect. Staff supported one person who had previously been “labelled as a person who could not socialise” to build a positive relationship with a neighbour.
Paxton Green Time Bank is involved with the project in south London, including at Williams’ sheltered housing. Alison Paule, the time bank’s director, says five of its members visit local homes weekly to play musical games, do small gardening projects, or just talk. Paule adds: “What our members get in return is intergenerational contact and sometimes local knowledge or history which they don’t have.” One older resident is teaching conversational English to a volunteer originally from Colombia. At Christmas, a group of older people and volunteers shared a pub lunch together.
There are challenges, says Cooper-Ueki. The approach demands that staff go beyond the basic tasks involved in traditional care work, and that they do this at a time of austerity. She says: “Organisations have had to pare back on things that would be creative or additional.” Staff turnover can also undermine progress. Success, she adds, results from support from senior staff for the project: “It does take time, effort and commitment to build the links and make the connections in community.”
For Brown, Time to Connect adds value to care work because support staff get a greater glimpse into people’s lives and characters, rather than focusing simply on their physical needs. He says: “It makes the job more rewarding and it improves my relationship with the people I’m working with. It just makes me smile a little more.”
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/05/connecting-care-service-users-communities
