An important new partnership is about to launch between Age UK and the islands' Council. It follows on from the successful introduction on St Mary's of the Dial-a-Ride Buzza Bus service, the running of which the independent national charity carry out under contract for the Town Hall.
The Council has accessed finance from the Government's Better Care Fund to help resource a project-coordinator post on the islands. The post will be managed by Age UK and is focussed on helping socially isolated individuals to have more contact with other people.
This second initiative on the islands from Age UK will be running under the banner of 'Living Well on Scilly.' It is the latest in a small group of 'pathfinder projects' which Age UK Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, the local branch of the charity, are now pioneering.
These began on the mainland in 2012 with a programme involving just 100 older people in Newquay. They spread last year into nine GP practices across Penwith with work involving admissions and discharges to and from West Cornwall hospital and have now just opened up in East Cornwall with identification of the vulnerable elderly in terms of declining health, social isolation and growing frailty.
'Our project will have an island flavour with Age UK already in the process of recruiting their own project co-ordinator specifically for Scilly.' said Councillor Richard McCarthy, who is lead Member for Adult Social Care on the islands’ chair as well as the Local Authority's Community Services chairman.
'That person will have the task of boosting the voluntary sector, particularly in support of those individuals and their carers who are at risk or likely to be at risk of social isolation,' said Cllr McCarthy. 'Loneliness is recognised today as one of the most significant factors in older and vulnerable people's loss of independence; something which can then and frequently does lead to admission, either to residential or acute hospital care.'
The intention is for the new Age UK appointee to work closely with the islands' GP team, the local hospital, with Adult Social Care and HealthWatch and with existing voluntary services on St Mary’s as well as off-island co-ordinators.
'Our Living Well aim is simple: to help people live the lives they want,' said Age UK Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly chief executive Tracey Rhoose. 'We aim to improve people's mental, physical and social wellbeing as well as improving carers' quality of life in the process. We want people to experience an improvement in care; and carers in turn to experience an improvement in their experience of care,' she added.
Ultimately the aspiration behind a successful 'Living Well' scheme is to have in place arrangements within a local community and in people's homes that enhance feelings of wellbeing in a way that reduces the demand for social care services, reduces the cost of social care packages and also brings about a consequent reduction in emergency-driven costs in the acute sector.
This 'Living Well' approach in Cornwall and now Scilly has been praised by the Government's Care Minister Norman Lamb MP and on Scilly this latest Age UK project is in fact being funded directly by the Department of Health's 'Better Care Fund.'
'Age UK have already created a great track record with the way they run the Council's electric Buzza Bus service for the over 60s and the disabled,' said Cllr McCarthy.
The six-days-a-week service is currently making some 500 trips a month around St Mary's and at just £1.50 a trip it has massively increased the ability of previously isolated individuals to access friends, public services, shops and recreations as well as becoming an essential ingredient in enabling new developments like Scilly's Memory Cafe to flourish by helping it maximise its potential customer base.
'If Living Well wins half as many plaudits on the islands in due course as the Buzza Bus has then it can be genuinely labelled a success,' Cllr McCarthy added.
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Anyone interested in the Age UK Living Well Coordinator post can download the job description and application form at the following link; the closing date is the 20th March 2015: http://www.ageuk.org.uk/cornwall/job-opportunities/