Grant to Carers of West Lothian (GB-SC-SC022910-FR-0052798)
Funding Organization
£1,939
Recipient Organization
To purchase new laptops and upgrade the telephone system to enable more effective home working and a better service for carers and people with disabilities across West Lothian.
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Grant Details
| Amount Applied For | 2232 |
| Amount Awarded | 1939 |
| Award Date | 2020-04-17T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Beneficiary Location: Country Code | GB |
| Beneficiary Location: Geographic Code | S01013309 |
| Beneficiary Location: Geographic Code Type | DZ |
| Beneficiary Location: Name | Howden - 01 |
| Grant Programme: Title | Response Recovery and Resilience (CLOSED) |
| Last Modified | 2024-05-18T06:02:17Z |
| Recipient Org: Charity Number | SC019628 |
| Recipient Org: Company Number | SC226434 |
| Recipient Org: Description | We support unpaid carers and disabled adults living in West Lothian by offering an advice, information and support service. Our aim is to ensure that everyone in West Lothian is able to live their lives the way they choose, and in the case of carers, to balance their caring role with having their own lives. We have been running for 29 years and support over 5,700 carers and 210 adults with disabilities (our disabilities service is very new for us). Core funding is received through a Contract with West Lothian HSCP but as the value of the Contract does not cover all core costs, this year we are facing a funding deficit and are currently using reserves to meet costs. Our core service offers information and advice on a range of topics, including benefits, legal issues, carers rights, access to services. We also work with partners such as the Advice Shop and lawyers to offer benefits advice and Power of Attorney for carers and where we cannot answer questions or provide the right specialist support, we signpost to a range of partners including Signpost, Homestart, West Lothian Drug & Alcohol Services, Youth Action West Lothian, Alzheimers and Cyrenians. A big part of our support is through a range of peer support groups which includes supporting bereaved carers, young carers, those suffering from poor mental health. We support our carers? mental health by offering counselling and Mindfulness. We have a team of 17 staff, with a mix of part time and full time staff and 24 volunteers help us to facilitate peer support groups, and drive young carers to and from support groups. In the last financial year to March 2020, we have supported 660 new adult carers, 125 new young carers and 62 disabled adults. In response to the COVID19 pandemic, we are finding that we need to adapt our core service by avoiding face to face contact. We are now offering telephone support, weekly telephone check-ins for more vulnerable people, offer advice and information on issues directly associated with COVID19 and offering a range of Zoom or online peer support groups. The telephone support is done by answering calls coming into the organisation from people who are registered with us or taking referrals from Social Work or the NHS for families where there is carer stress as a result of restrictions now being placed on hospitals. We react to calls but also make calls to those more vulnerable service users on a weekly basis to check that they are coping and see if we can help in any way. Typically calls are lasting 40 minutes, with callers often in tears when they speak to us due to pressure of caring for someone with the added worry of COVID19 risks. Often providing a shoulder to cry on is what people need. Our advice and information service now focuses mainly on advice on benefits, legal questions and practical questions around social distancing, shopping and delivery of medications. Whist we cannot meet some of the more practical needs, we are developing a database of local community groups offering practical help so that we can signpost people to them directly. This provides help for people who are self isolating through illness or by being a carer, with shopping and delivering prescriptions as well as delivering hot meals. This database grows every day as we hear of more local initiatives emerging. We are also adapting our peer support groups, moving from face to face support to delivering them remotely, via the Zoom platform. Our peer support groups are developing on a weekly basis as we become more familiar with using the technologies and we are planning to introduce new groups including more interactive YouTube demonstrations on cooking, working with Tai Chi and Personal Fitness instructors to deliver online groups for parent carers and adult carers in general. We are also putting a call out for volunteers with musical or creative skills to help us develop more creative groups offering a bit of light relief and this will include quizzes, music, singing and arts and crafts sessions for all service users. |
| Recipient Org: Web Address | https://www.carers-westlothian.com |