AGM and Annual Report 2020/21

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Thank you to everyone who attended our 31st AGM on 8 December.

The event, which took place online again this year, included a review of the year by Director, Liz Prudhoe. She outlined how Adapt (NE) responded to the pandemic, running services differently and working with community groups to support people who needed it during lockdowns. Core services such as Advocacy, Healthwatch Northumberland and the Living Well Coordination Service continued to be delivered with staff working mostly from home. Transport services were stood down but we were able to help some individuals who were unable to get Patient Transport to hospital appointments.

An overview of the Living Well Coordination Service was given by Team Leader, Tania Thomas. She talked about how the service has helped individuals across West Northumberland during the pandemic and how they made calls to over 1400 people who were classed as clinically extremely vulnerable.

Our Chair, Lorraine Hershon, thanked Liz and all the staff for the work over what was a different and difficult year, and said Adapt (NE) is in a secure position going forward.

You can read more in our Annual Report 2020-21

 

 

 

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Adapt (NE) AGM 2021: you’re invited

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If you use, or are interested in any of our services, please join us at our AGM 2021 where we will be reviewing our work over the last 12 months. We will also be hearing from Tania Thomas of the West Northumberland Living Well Coordination Service. She will be letting us know how the service has made a difference to people in the area since it started in January 2020.

The AGM will take place on Wednesday 8 December from 11.00am and will be online again this year.

To register your place please email: generaloffice@adapt-tynedale.org.uk and we will sent you the Zoom link to join.

This event has now passed.

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Bereavement Cafe

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Tynedale Hospice at Home has launched its brand new Bereavement Café, starting at 10.30am on Thursday 2 September at Hexham Community Centre.
The café is open to anyone who has been bereaved and offers a safe and welcoming space to share stories and connect with others in the local community who have also experienced the death of someone close to them.
Booking isn’t required; you can drop in as and when you wish. For more information please contact the Family Support Team at Tynedale Hospice on 01434 600384.
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Living Well Coordination Service

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We began delivering the West Northumberland Living Well Coordination Service in January 2020, in partnership with West Northumberland Primary Care Network. The service, also called ‘social prescribing’ in other areas of the country, has been hugely successful, having contacted over 1650 people over the last 12 months and helping people to address aspects of their lives that may be having an impact on their health and wellbeing.

Providing a non-clinical service, Living Well Coordinators help people with non-medical and social issues such as emotional wellbeing, housing, financial resilience and benefits, employment and skills, healthy lifestyles, family issues and loneliness. Coordinators can link people to community groups, activities and support services local to them, while providing a supportive and non-judgemental ear.

Since the start of the pandemic the service has seen a large number of people referred for issues around emotional wellbeing. Lockdowns and restrictions have exacerbated mental health problems, and some have found it hard to cope with bereavement due to the impact of Covid-19 on hospital and care home visiting and funeral arrangements. There was also an increase in referrals around housing and financial issues.

Lead Living Well Coordinator Tania Thomas says “We had to quickly adapt during the lockdown and find ways of supporting people where physical services were not available. We have helped many clients access counselling and mental health services since the start of the pandemic, supported them to claim benefits and hardship funds, access telephone befriending services, gardening projects and volunteering opportunities. We have also received referrals for a number of people struggling with carer fatigue as the services they were using previously stopped running or were no longer able to provide face-to-face support.”

To be referred to the Living Well Coordination Service speak to any member of your GP practice team (Living Well Coordinators do not have access to medical records) and from 1 April you will be able to self-refer to the service.

 

This short animation from the Healthy London Partnership explains more about social prescribing.

See more at the Living Well Coordination Service page

 

 

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Keeping People Connected

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Northumberland Independent Advocacy Service is happy to announce that it is running a project called Keeping People Connected. The aim of the project, which was first delivered by People First at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, is to support people with learning disabilities and/or autism who have no other access to support from family or other agencies, to link with local services during lockdown.

We are able to run this service until 31 March 2021, thanks to funding from NHS Northumberland Clinical Comissioning Group. We welcome referrals for Keeping People Connected for people who have a learning disability, learning difficulty or autism who qualify for and would benefit from independent telephone support from experienced, friendly and specialist professionals to gain access to services throughout the county.

The organisations involved will help people to:

  • Understand what ‘staying at home’ or ‘staying alert’ means
  • Understand the guidance on how to stay safe and not catch the virus, who to contact and where to go
  • Understand and treat any symptoms and illness they might have and generally look after themselves in this difficult time
  • Decide what immediate support they might need e.g. getting food or medication, knowing how to ask for help in an emergency
  • Know where to access more support services and connect to local groups
  • Feel supported, by staying in touch on an ongoing basis, if needed
  • Solve problems if things go wrong
  • Get help from other services where needed

If you would like to make a referral please complete the General Advocacy Referral Form or contact us by telephone: 01434 600599 (select the advocacy option) to discuss the support required.

This service is no longer available.

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AGM- Thank you

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We invited those who work closely with Adapt (NE) and people who use our services to come along to our AGM on Thursday 17 December. Director Liz Prudhoe made introductions and apologies, then the minutes of last year’s meeting were agreed, the accounts for the year were presented and trustees were nominated.

Chair of the board of trustees, Lorraine Hershon, said that Adapt had built on its past successes, offering more services to the council during the pandemic and is in a good position going forward.

Liz gave an overview of the year, from all parts of the organisation including advocacy, transport, Healthwatch Northumberland, Cafe @ Burn Lane and social prescribing.

Guest speaker Emma Richardson from Northumberland County Council then spoke about the council’s response to the pandemic through the work of Northumberland Communities Together, and thanked Adapt (NE) for being a strong and reliable partner.

Thank you to everyone who attended.

Read the minutes of the AGM 2020.

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Join us for our AGM 2020

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Thursday 17 December, 11.00am

Our AGM is a chance to find out more about our work over the last 12 months, in transport, advocacy, Healthwatch Northumberland, the community cafe and more. You can also find out about our plans into 2021. Like other organisations, we have had to move our AGM online this year, in light of the coronavirus pandemic. We will hold the AGM via Zoom – if you would like to join us please email: jeanp@adapt-tynedale.org.uk.

This event has now passed.

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Update on our services

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Since the start of lockdown at the end of March, most of the team here at Adapt (NE) have continued to work from home. Our advocacy service has been as busy as ever, providing support remotely to people across the county through our NHS, Care Act, Relevant Person Representative, Independent Mental Health and Independent Mental Capacity advocacy services.

Healthwatch Northumberland’s information and signposting service has been busy helping people find out about changes to services, where to get support locally and listening to people’s experiences of health and social care. The team are holding some online public forums starting from this week, and you can find out how to get involved here.

We are looking at ways we might be able to safely provide the dial-a-ride transport service again in the future. We have been able to help a number of people get to urgent hospital appointments where they have been unable to access any other transport. This was done following social distancing guidelines on our vehicles. If you have issues with getting to medical appointments we might be able to help so do get in touch.

Through our facilities at Café @ Burn Lane we have been able to provide space for volunteers to produce freshly cooked meals for members of both Corbridge and Allendale Lunch Clubs. These have been well received and we’re very pleased to have been able to help. The café will have to stay closed for now until we receive further advice from the government. Although we are permitted to open for take away food, we recognise that there are plenty of businesses in the area providing this service and we have decided not to take custom away from those already offering these services.

We have taken the decision to de-register as a provider of Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, as we need individuals to visit us at our offices to do this. With staff working from home and social distancing measures in place for some time to come, we feel we can no longer offer this service. Any DBS checks that are currently being processed will be completed. There are many online DBS services which will be able to help if you need one.

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SpeakUp2020 in the Healthwatch Northumberland Survey

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Healthwatch Northumberland has a survey each year, asking about your health and social care experiences in the previous 12 months. It might be a new year but your experiences from 2019 still matter. You can feed back as a patient or carer.

By sharing what went well for you, what might be improved and what is important to you, you can help the team set work priorities for the coming year and help make a difference to care services locally.

Share your views online or call 03332 408468 for a postal copy with freepost return.

More about Healthwatch Northumberland and how you can get involved.

This survey has now closed.

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Community Information Morning February 2020

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Call in to our next Community Information Morning where you can pick up advice and information about health, wellbeing, transport, money and things going on in your area. This time we have Tynedale Hospice at Home, Northumberland Cancer Support Group, Alzheimers Society, Action on Hearing Loss, Healthwatch Northumberland and Macular Society coming along, plus help around Attendance Allowance and also Support Planners from Northumbria Healthcare.
Join us for a cuppa and a piece of cake in the Resource Room – just through the door from Cafe @ Burn Lane.

 

Adapt (NE) Community Information Morning

Wednesday 19 February 2020, 10.30am – 12.30pm

Adapt (NE), Burn Lane, Hexham NE46 3HN

Free entry, all welcome!

 

This event has now passed.

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