CNC NEWS 2009 Issue 2

Contact the Elderly Contact the Elderly is a national charity setting up a new group in Cambridge to provide companionship for older people who live alone. The charity helps alleviate the social isolation often felt by those who find it difficult to get out and about without assistance. The idea is simple: each month on a Sunday, volunteer drivers take those over 75 to the home of a volunteer host where all enjoy the warmth of friendship for a few hours. This gives people the opportunity to experience private hospitality in a family environment on a day of the week that can be particularly lonely for older people who live on their own. Groups are kept small so that everyone can chat and easily get to know each other. The Cambridge groups will be set up by Sarah Ingram, a Partner at John Lewis, Cambridge; the company has also adopted Contact the Elderly as its charity of the year and have awarded Sarah a six month secondment specifically to set up new groups in and around Cambridge where there are currently no groups at all. If you’d like to know more or if you know an older person who would benefit from and enjoy a monthly tea party, please get in touch with: Sarah Ingram, Cambridge Development Officer, on 07794 395894 or via email on sarah.ingram@contact-the-elderly.org.uk

Stop Press Groups are also being formed in Cambourne, Histon, Huntingdon and Peterboro’.

We’re celebrating our age! This year we’ve decided to mark Cambridgeshire Celebrates Age month with two events, at the start and end of October. On the 1st, do join in with The Care Network Cambridgeshire Coffee Morning. We hope all our volunteers, the groups we network with, our trustees, staff, family and friends will take part by hosting a small coffee morning to have fun, eat cake (!), and celebrate the fantastic things that we achieve to support independence for older people. In the process, we’ll hopefully raise some funds towards our continuing work. Then on 30th October, our delicious volunteers’ tea will follow our short AGM. This year’s special interest topic is a session called ‘Have Your Say about Planning!’, to be led by local charity Planning Aid. It’s a chance to hear how planning works around here, hopefully in an enjoyable way, and have a say about it – maybe even to raise some hot local issues. We’ll write up the results to the local planning authorities. Meanwhile, I’m delighted that we’ve seen four new ‘good neighbour scheme’ launches and recently re-launched our training programme! All really fantastic news. Read on for accounts of our Welcome Home from Hospital scheme launch in Fenland, the new Chatters Community Café at Holywell-cum-Needingworth, The Beaches Car Scheme and PECTS - a new transport scheme for Papworth Everard and the local area. Still more new and extended schemes are in the pipeline, while together CNC and local groups already offer over 80 valuable local services to support older people’s independence. Our Mobile Warden Support Groups have got off to a new quarterly start, and we shall hold two social car scheme workshops in July. See the back page for dates. Helen Randall, Chief Officer

Dave ‘Boy’ Green and CNC’s Hilary Johnys

NEWS FROM SOUTH CAMBS PECTS is here! A brand new social transport venture is getting underway in Papworth Everard, supported by Care Network. CNC and Cambridgeshire County Council have been aware for some time that several residents there have difficulty in getting out for ‘vital journeys’ like medical appointments, but also want to just get out and about. Now help is at hand... PECTS, Papworth Everard Community Transport Scheme, was formed when it became apparent last year that there would be a change to how transport would be provided for residents of The Papworth Trust, after September 2008. A group formed a committee to look at how they could help with this, and their efforts have paid off with the new scheme launch. It has always been, and continues to be, PECTS’ intention that this is not restricted to those who live within the Papworth Trust, but that it should cover the whole village.

They are beginning with a small number of journeys that help people get out and about to doctors’ appointments, essential shopping and services in nearby towns. They can provide a Disability Accessible vehicle. As with many schemes, there is a mobile phone number to call and book journeys; initially these will be timetabled, but PECTS intends to extend and develop this over time. In due course, PECTS would also like to work with neighbouring villages to involve and support them in this essential community scheme.

The Beaches are back Waterbeach and the surrounding villages had a social car scheme for many years until the co-ordinator, Jim Wade, felt he had to step down last year for a much needed rest. The villages have since been without the valuable support that a social car scheme gives - until the recent launch in April of The Beaches Car Scheme. The amassed knowledge and enthusiasm of Jim Wade, previous and new volunteers, local churches, the GP surgery and CNC resulted in a newly constituted scheme. Lets hope they continue to grow.

MWS Support Group Many of you will be aware that it was sometime since we organised a mobile warden schemes’ ‘Get Together’, but they restarted on May 14th at Haslingfield Village Hall. South Cambs District Council’s new Partnership Officer Kathryn Hawkes, and Gemma Baron their Partnerships Manager (who share an interest in MWS grant funding and services), both attended. It was good to let them know what local schemes are feeling confident about, and what help and what support is needed. We are now looking at how CNC can provide bespoke help to the mobile warden schemes in the future; there will be more information soon. Jane Hurst South Cambs Development Officer

A Papworth Community Transport Scheme (PECTS) committee meeting

NEWS FROM FENLAND Spring Tea Party In April more than 70 people from Over 60s clubs in the parishes of Parson Drove and Wisbech St Mary enjoyed a spring tea party at Parson Drove, funded by Fenland Links and organised by CNC. The event included entertainment, tea and cakes and a prize draw for baskets of fruit and some beautiful spring flower table arrangements.

Star of the show was PC Julie Coales of the Neighbourhood Policing Team who explained to people how to keep safe in their home. The question of the length of Julie’s baton when fully extended caused much merriment.

Lunch Clubs In March my tour of lunch clubs around Fenland was completed with a visit to Fridaybridge and Guyhirn Lunch Clubs. At each I was treated to a splendid meal and good company. We are now turning our attention to exploring the possibility of setting up lunch clubs in the towns, starting with a joint venture at the new Rosmini Centre in Wisbech. The aim is to provide more than just a lunch club, with social activities afterwards and access to the computer suite. Anyone who is interested please do contact me.

Community Car Scheme Coordinator Marion Ashman, co-ordinator of the Wisbech St Mary Community Car Scheme, attended a hog roast at Peckover House in Wisbech to mark the 21st birthday celebration of the Fenland Volunteer Centre. She was presented with a certificate in recognition of her contribution and commitment as a volunteer with the scheme, and no doubt for all the many other voluntary activities in which she is involved. Marion recently asked me to take over the scheme phone for a week while she was on holiday. It certainly brought home to me the tremendous commitment, professionalism and sense of service that volunteers bring to car schemes right across the county. Sue Beel Fenland Development officer

Spring Tea Party at Parson Drove

WELCOME HOME FROM HOSPITAL Fenland Launch News

The exciting news this month is the launch of the Fenland Welcome Home service on Thursday June 25th at March Town Hall. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for supporting us in getting this up and running, launched and fully operational.

The launch event itself was a success. We had a good turnout with our chairman Andrew Gardiner, the Mayor of March, Mr John West, the Mayor of Wisbech, Mrs Yvonne Lawrence and our special guest Mr. Dave (Boy) Green. All spoke of the value of Welcome Home from Hospital and the importance of having the scheme extended into Fenland, thus making Welcome Home from Hospital truly countywide.

The last couple of months have been very busy with preparing for the launch, recruiting new volunteers and taking referrals. In May we also had our first volunteer coffee morning, where Sue Beel came along as our guest speaker to tell us about her work as Development Officer for CNC and to inform us of the schemes she has set up in Fenland. We have agreed to get together every two months, to catch up with each other and to exchange news and information. So our next coffee morning is to be held at March library on Wednesday 26th of August, when Hilary Johnys will be joining us to talk about CNC’s new protocol with regard to referrals of mental health patients. Now that Fenland is officially launched Sally Robinson (pictured right), Assistant Co-ordinator and Jane Johannessen, Co-ordinator, are looking forward to having more time to continue to develop the scheme itself. As we have a 15 strong team of volunteers, trained and eager to get out there, we will focus on making sure that anyone wanting to make use of our scheme knows we are here.

Mayor John West, CNC’s Jane Johannessen, Dave ‘Boy’ Green, CNC’s Hilary Johnys and Mayor Yvonne Lawrence launch

Welcome Home from Hospital Fenland with the cutting of a cake.

Volunteers, Dignitaries and Guests at the launch of Welcome Home from Hospital - Fenland

Know your Numbers The Blood Pressure Association is again raising awareness of the dangers of high blood pressure with Know your Numbers Week 09, from 7-13 September. High Blood Pressure can give rise to many health problems including stroke or heart attack. So look after yourself and if you don’t know your blood pressure spare a few minutes and have your blood pressure checked. To find out more look at www.bpassoc.org.uk/kyn/ or contact the Blood Pressure Association Information line 0845 241 0989. Open 11am to 3pm, Monday to Friday.

WELCOME HOME FROM HOSPITAL A busy service in Huntingdon Our funding from Big Lottery ends this year. We had a good end of funding meeting with the lottery officer and she was pleased with our results. We have over-performed on our targets, taking over twice as many referrals as originally planned. We currently have a new application in for Reaching Communities funding from the Big lottery for the ongoing service in Hunts.

South Cambs (Addenbrooke's) service We have taken 300+ referrals in the last year and helped some very needy cases. Many discharges from hospital have been made more secure and comfortable by our services. Last year we said good bye to Pauline Davison (pictured) who left her position as relief worker. We now have Sandra Langford covering for holidays and sickness.

Volunteers please! Both Help at Home in Ely and the surrounding areas, and Welcome Home from Hospital, continue to need volunteers - particularly in West Hunts (in and around Kimbolton and Great Staughton), Cambridge City and March. If you know of anyone who may be interested, please ask them to contact one of the Coordinators.

We need men! We’ve also been thinking about what makes up our volunteer profile in Cambridgeshire. We found that our volunteers are mainly women aged between 20-88, some are working full time and others are retired or work part time. We have very few men who are volunteering across the region, and one of our longest serving male volunteers, Trevor Corner, is about to move to Dubai. Trevor’s maxim is to ‘always leave people better off than how he found them’. What a great view of life, and one that we know is shared by all our volunteers! We do need some more men with spare time to volunteer for us. Perhaps you are (or know) someone who would like to help out. Please put them in touch with the Welcome Home South office. PS: We need women too!

Out of hours telephone support for Welcome Home and Help at Home We have recently set up an out of hours telephone support system for all our Direct Services volunteers. Volunteers have been given a mobile telephone number and will be able to contact a co-ordinator between 4pm-8pm weekdays and 10-4pm weekends. Hilary Johnys, Senior Direct Services Co-ordinator, Lesley Griffey, Co-ordinator WHfH Hunts & Jane Johannessen, Co-ordinator WHfH Fenland

Pauline Davison and Miki Ellar at the WHfH Fenland Launch

HELP AT HOME Thank you all who attended our official launch at Ely’s Cathedral Centre on the 4th March 2009. Cakes and enthusiasm were plenty and so was the interest in the scheme. The Mayor of Ely addressed the assembled, pointing out how valuable and much needed the Help at Home scheme is for the residents of Ely. Examples of help already given as part of the pilot scheme were mentioned, and the exchange of experiences and ideas between the volunteers and those that had already received help was appreciated and valued by all.

Following, is the reaction of one of the residents of Ely: “We have been waiting for a service like Help at Home for a long time. To know that there is someone to fall back on, to help with shopping or fetch a prescription, during illness for instance, is such a relief. I will certainly spread the word about the Help at Home service which will be of benefit to many”. To become a trained volunteer with the scheme does take some time. This was one of the main reasons why the scheme was not fully up and running last year. But I am happy to say that a good number of volunteers are ready and very eager to help. Requests for assistance are received and in most cases the response is immediate. Please let us know if you know someone who could benefit from help, however large or small. Jacquie Schaerer Help at Home

NEWS FROM EAST CAMBS Deniva: Soham Community Support Scheme The mobile warden scheme in Soham has recently successfully recruited a second part time warden. If successful with new funding bids, Mo Galpin and Anji Schumann hope to increase the number of hours that the scheme will be available enabling them to support more subscribers to the service which provides local elderly residents with regular contact in person or by telephone and some practical support such as collecting pensions and prescriptions.

Ely Lunch Club Plans are progressing well for the Ely Lunch Club, which is currently supported by the Community Mental Health Team, to become a free standing group. Care Network has recruited two volunteers who will take over coordinating the lunches for the group. It will continue to enjoy company and good food at its fortnightly get-togethers at Ely’s High Flier pub in Ely.

Development Officer We are currently recruiting for a new East Cambridgeshire Development Officer and hope to appoint a replacement later in the summer. Until then please contact Heather Corbishley at either the Ely or Huntingdon offices. Heather Corbishley

Stop junk mail sent to those who have died After a bereavement the last thing you want is to continue to receive junk mail addressed to the deceased. To avoid this contact the bereavement register on 0800 082 1230 or see www.the-bereavement-register.com . With thanks to COPE newsletter—May 2009

NEWS FROM HUNTS Chatters Community Café Chatters, the new community café in Holywell-cum- Needingworth, which Care Network has helped to establish, opened for business in March and was officially ‘launched’ with a Celebration Day on May 28th.

The café extended into the village hall for the day in order to provide local groups the opportunity to advertise their activities. Cambridgeshire North West MP Shailesh Vara visited the café, chatted to customers and gave the café his best wishes. In the afternoon customers enjoyed cake and a variety of children’s activities. The café volunteers took around 170 orders on the day, keeping everyone in both café and kitchen very busy. The café has a lot to celebrate. The café has exceeded all expectations in attracting both customers and volunteers and the team has won an Awards for All grant with which to buy crockery, tables, chairs and equipment, including a continental coffee machine which will enable the café to add lattes, expressos and cappuccino coffee to its menu. Chatters is open every Thursday and aims to offer companionship to local residents who use the café, as well as providing a range of homemade cakes, drinks and snacks at affordable prices. Board games, books and newspapers are available for customers to borrow while at the café and there are exciting plans for further development, including additional opening days, craft groups and community learning opportunities.

Friends in Deed This village support group based in Buckden, offering practical help and friendship to people of all ages who are ill, housebound, or are simply new to the village or feel lonely, is the latest member of Care Network in the Huntingdonshire area. The scheme already has an enthusiastic team of volunteers who have all been CRB vetted. It hopes that with support from Care Network the group will be able to expand its coverage and develop its services.

Heather Corbishley Hunts Development Officer

Shailesh Vara, MP and Katrina Edney at the launch of Chatters Community cafe

Chatters Community Café at Holywell-cum-Needingworth

Donations Care Network is a charitable company limited by guarantee, serving residents of Cambridgeshire and adjoining areas. We are grateful for funding by local authorities, grant-giving trusts, local donors and fund-raising activities. We need your help! If you would like to make a donation to support this work, please make cheques payable to Care Network Cambridgeshire. Thank you!

Care Network Cambridgeshire, Registered in England at 5 Broadway House, 149-151 St Neots Rd, Hardwick, Cambridgeshire, CB23 7QJ Registered Charity No 1120693, Company Limited by Guarantee No 6297277

Individual Carers’ Emergency Respite The ‘ICER’ Individual Carers’ Emergency Respite Scheme has been set up by Cambridgeshire County Council to help carers plan for situations when a sudden, unexpected emergency stops them from being able to carry out their caring role. This is available to adults who provide a substantial amount of care on a regular basis to an adult or older person; the person you care for must need some support to manage at home safely over a period of 48 hours. To join the scheme a carer must first have a carer’s assessment completed. Where carers care for someone who does not currently receive services (but may be eligible) please contact the Carers Support Manager for more information at: ‘Cambridgeshire Direct’ Contact Centre PO Box 144 St Ives CAMBS PE27 9AU Tel: 0845 0455202

Tues 21st July Thurs 23rd July Weds 26th Aug Tues 8th Sept Thurs 10th Sept Thurs 1st Oct Fri 30th Oct Fri 20th Nov Tues 8th Dec

10.00 - 3.00 10.00 - 3.00 am 10.00 -12.30 9.30 - 3.00 Various times 1.30 - 4.15 2.30 - 5.00 9.30 - 3.00

Social car schemes & volunteer drivers’ workshop (South) Social car schemes & volunteer drivers’ workshop (North) Fenland volunteers’ coffee morning Mobile Warden Support Group Direct Services & volunteer visitor training The Care Network Cambridgeshire Coffee Morning AGM at Willingham, Tea & Have your Say about Planning Mobile Warden Support Group Direct Services & volunteer visitor training

New website for CAMTAD CAMTAD (Campaign for Tackling Acquired Deafness) has a new website. Details of all their hearing help clinics and services can now be found on www.camtadcambs.org.uk. They can also be contacted by telephone on 01223 416141 or by fax on 01223 245800 or by e-mail at admin@camtadcambs.org.uk. They have opened three new clinics in the Huntingdon District with a 4th opening shortly.

Huntingdon Priory Fields Surgery, Nursery Rd, PE29 3RL 14.00-16.00 2nd Wednesday each month

Brampton Brampton Surgery, Miller Way, PE28 4RU 14.00-16.00 Last Friday of the month

St Ives Northcote Surgery, 8 Broad Lees, PE27 5PT 10.00-12.00 2nd Wednesday each month

CNC Dates for your Diary 2009!