Author: Laura

Susan applied to become a Connex volunteer. She is a young mum of two young daughters and lives on her own. She also suffers with anxiety and depression. When I received the application, I had an initial discussion on the phone with her, and arranged to meet her in town for a coffee to discuss the role in more detail going forward.

When Susan arrived, she was so nervous and unsure, as she has never worked, nor done anything much in her life except raise her children. She was unsure about the role and how the meeting would progress. We rapidly put her at her ease and explained in detail how the project would work. She was very happy with the outcome. I followed up with her that afternoon to see how she was and as we had established at the meeting she was also a council tenant.

My thought was that before we placed her with an individual to support under Connex, she attends some of our events to increase her confidence. She attended our buffet lunch, and spend the afternoon chatting to those at her table. She was laughing and engaging, and even took some snacks home to her daughters. I followed up with another call that afternoon and this was what she said

‘Thanks you so much for giving me this opportunity and for all of your support. You cannot understand what this means to me, I am now so excited to start volunteering under Connex and would also love to volunteer at events.’

When asked how many participants she would like to support under Connex, she said ‘4’. Which really surprised me, and when I asked why, she said ‘in the sort time that I have been with Rotherfed, the support that had been given, had made me so happy, I now feel that I can give so much to others, and give something back to Rotherfed as well’

Susan will also in the new year be willing to attend HIP and Scrutiny meetings, but has said that she would not like to do the friendship calls, as she doesn’t like speaking on the phone.

Tammy is one of our amazing volunteers who joined us in November 2020, Tammy lives in London but enquired about the position as she wanted to do something but couldn’t find anything suitable near her. As the opportunity was for Telephone Befriending we agreed she could take on the role.

Tammy originally made 5 calls a week to participants often laughing about her accent, it quickly became apparent that Tammy had a knack for engaging with those that seemed at the offset to be sceptical about the scheme. She really had a way of getting some of our older independent ladies to take advice and seek local advice when needed, she even managed to convince a stubborn lady to accept carers into her home to assist her, when nobody else could.

Tammy has been talking to June, a very independent 91 year old for a few months. June really looks forward to the calls despite initially saying she wasn’t bothered and she had nothing to say to anyone. June has numerous health complaints, which puts an enormous amount of stress on her daughter as June will not accept outside help, or have an operation for her cataracts or other medical conditions!

Tammy called me one morning really concerned about June, she hadn’t been able to speak with her for a while but managed to speak to her daughter that morning. It transpires that June had been in hospital, had to have blood transfusions and has now been discharged home.

Tammy said the last time she spoke to Martha she advised her to speak to her daughter and to ring the GP or go to hospital as she had a medical problem that she was keeping to herself, thankfully this is advice she took and she told her daughter that Tammy had said she should seek medical advice.

When Tammy called her this morning (she was still concerned as she hadn’t answered the phone previously), her daughter picked up, June was unable to get to the phone because she was in bed and her daughter didn’t know what to do for the best. She told Tammy that June had been discharged from hospital without a care plan or medical advice, and she didn’t know what to do.

Tammy called me and I called Alison at social prescribing to see if anything could be done. To cut a long story short , thanks to our wonderful volunteer and swift action from Alison, rapid response will now be in place to help June at home , her daughter gets the respite she needs knowing June will be cared for.

Our volunteer is still calling June for updates, unfortunately due to her being in bed she is not able to answer the phone but Tammy calls intermittently and if her daughter or the careers pick up she passes a message to June to let her know we are thinking of her and that she hopes they get to speak again soon.

Louise was referred to us back in June 2021. When she was assessed, she was in a really dark place, she had been estranged from her son, her daughter had long covid, and relations were strained. She told me about her marriage and the abuse she had suffered at the hands of her ex-husband. Her oral was extremely low and she struggled to engage in conversation as she did not trust anyone, she had also recently lost her dad, to whom she was very close. She was extremely lonely and socially isolated. There had been some suicide attempts as well. She was also waiting for a knee operation and had to lose weight to enable this to go ahead. Louise was placed with the same two volunteers and her confidence really started to increase.

When Connex was mentioned to her, and it was established that she was also a council tenant, she was invited to attend our first Tenant Voice coffee morning. It was dubious whether she was actually come along. However, on the day, she did, she arrived at the venue and just stood in the doorway extremely frightened.

She was met by Jane and made to feel welcome, Mary, our chair also spend time talking with her and she really opened up to us both. After the event, she was then contacted by Jane to see if she was okay and that she had enjoyed the morning, she could not thank me enough and advised that she would really love to come along to the buffet lunch. I am happy to say that she did come along, and thoroughly enjoyed herself and spent the afternoon talking with other volunteers and staff and again, on leaving, was so proud of what she had achieved, and said how this was now making a massive difference to her life, as she now has something to really look forward to. She is continuing to receive her calls and will continue to attend our events.