Author: Laura

Friendship Call Volunteer – Sophia

Laura/ / Friendship Calls

Sophia is an Asian lady who began making calls for us back in November last year. She was a very nervous individual who had extreme anxiety due to her previous marriage situation and ostracisation from her Asian community. She blossomed making the calls and was doing very well. It was after few months that her husband contracted Covid and she had to step back into the role as wife. This created a very anxious situation for her and she decided after having some mental health first aid from her coordinator, to take some time out. After some time, she then decided to resume her volunteer role. She was allocated a lovely lady that she was very happy to support, and also decided to enrol herself on some mental health training. After further discussion, she has also decided to become a Rotherfed Connex volunteer, which is a massive step forward for her. We invited her to attend our TPAS presentation Award.

Friendship Call Participant – Milly

Laura/ / Friendship Calls

Milly was originally referred to us back in March. She has long standing Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder and has no confidence. Milly did not go out much previous to getting the friendship call, does not watch TV and just passes her time on her tablet. She has a 14 year old daughter that she only see on a Sunday. Milly is obese and is under a psychologist. Milly has been trying to lose weight to qualify for bariatric surgery. As she does not speak to anyone – except her professional team, she has built up a fantastic relationship with her volunteer – here are a couple of feedback from the volunteer outlining the conversations of the past two week.

Another positive chat with Milly. She talked at length about the work she is doing with her psychologist, and although she finds talking about some aspects of her past difficult she has continued to engage in the therapy and to complete the homework she sometimes is asked to do. We chatted about her diet and the target she needs to reach by the 28th of this month to ensure she will be accepted for bariatric surgery. Apart from the occasional setback she remains focused. Milly spoke about having some time out for herself today and had visited a store she likes in Sheffield and treated herself to a couple of items. She said this had lifted her mood. We chatted about the Covid vaccination programme and Milly is keen to have a booster. She talked about her daughter who is 14 years old and has recently had Covid, Milly is encouraging her to get vaccinated when she is able to do so. We talked about the area where Milly lives as I know it well and about local craft groups that Milly attends. Further contact arranged towards the end of next week

Brief chat with Milly today, she talked initially about her recent appointment with psychologist and then about the approaching appointment with a doctor in the Bariatric Service when a decision will be made re the surgery. Milly had managed to lose a little weight this past week but is still a couple of pounds off her target and is starting to worry about this. We talked about her coping strategies and about using the support available to her particularly if the outcome of her appointment with the Bariatric service is negative. Milly has requested I contact her next Thursday afternoon, the day after her appointment.

Friendship Call Participant – Mary

Laura/ / Friendship Calls

Mary was originally referred to us by a mental health occupational therapist and after being referred to us, she was discharge due to improvement in her mental health. Mary was allocated a volunteer on a permanent basis who is educated in mental health. Since being discharged, her mental health started to deteriorate again to a point where she had stopped eating, and taking fluids and would not get out of bed. The volunteer informed us that she was constantly in a severe depressed state. The Volunteer Coordinators referred her back to the occupational therapist who referred Mary to the service and Mary was informed that as she had been discharge, she would need to contact her GP for another referral into mental health or call the crisis team, however she was in no state to do this.

After a couple of week of gentle persuasion and patience and the trust that the participant had in the volunteer, the participate managed to ring the GP. A home visit was arranged straight away and the participant was taken directly into hospital. She remained in hospital for a few days, whereby the volunteer continued to keep in touch with her. The mental health team was also called in to see the participant in hospital. Upon discharge, the participant is starting to improve now.

Energy Know How

Laura/ / Good News Stories, In Your Community

By Sharon Smith, Community Energy Advisor

I met with a client at a drop-in session for one to one advice after having delivered a presentation around priority services register and the warm home discount.

The client was paying £60.00 per month for water which includes ongoing charges and arrears which the client is struggling with and is starting to impact on his ability to keep up with his other energy bills.

We discussed water meters and the client wanted to go ahead and trial one as well as register for priority services on his water – he is already registered for priority services on his gas and electricity.

We called Yorkshire Water and spoke to Jaya, who confirmed client is not on a meter and has annual charges £378.58 with a balance outstanding which currently stands at £988.33.

I explained that the client is struggling financially and was transferred to collections where we spoke to Carly. Carly agreed to reduce ongoing payments to £48.00 which the client pays every 4 weeks, saving him £156.00 per year. We also requested a water meter for the client and it was agreed for an engineer to visit and hopefully fit one in Mid October. It was estimated that this will reduce his bill to £216.00 per year saving a further £162.00 per year after installation. I also registered the client with the Priority Services Register for constant supply and meter readings.

During the conversation the client also mentioned he has other debts and would like a referral to Making Your Money Go Further and then onto Citizens Advice to discuss debt options.

Energy Know How

Laura/ / Good News Stories, In Your Community

By Noor Salih, Community Energy Advisor

September has been a busy month for us – from providing advice on the current energy market to ensuring that we hand out our winter warmer packs to our most vulnerable clients across Rotherham. One of our clients is from an active community group, who has had an ongoing complaint with their energy provider about a refund amount and the incorrect information on the bill.

At the community group drop-in session we discussed the complaint process, who OFGEM are and what their rights are as a consumer when making a formal complaint. Our client explained that they have an ongoing complaint within the complaints department over a bill dispute, I showed them how to calculate their bill and went over bank statements to ensure they had received their refund. The refund was received but the bill was showing that our client had also been charged for the refund.

I explained what a ‘customer service failure’ is in the eyes of the Ombudsman and how to speak to their complaint case handler. Our client is now more confident on how to understand their bill, what they are entitled to as a consumer with an ongoing complaint. They received a correct amended bill and got a healthy amount of gesture of goodwill.

TPAS Awards 2021

Laura/ / Announcements

The RotherFed Friendship Calls project was shortlisted for the “Excellence in Community Action Award” at the Annual Tpas Awards which took place on 8th October 2021, and we have been successful.

Our CEO, Phil Hayes, would like to say a big thank you to all our amazing volunteers that have given so much of their time up to help isolated people in our communities through some really difficult situations.
Also a huge thank you to all our staff team that have been involved in and created an incredible service through their passion, resilience and hard work.

SEND Youth Club Summer Fare

Laura/ / In Your Community

By Sam Dixon, Community Organiser

The SEND youth group wanted to celebrate their reopening after the restrictions due to COVID-19 and expanding to start another youth group in Brinsworth.

The group planned for a small summer fayre to be held within the grounds of the JADE Centre. The centre is where the group first came together and has continued to support Jo and the team. A small amount of activities were put on designed to entertain everyone. These included a small bouncy castle, a tombola with an array of prizes, cookies and cakes were being sold, as well as other items.
I offered my support to the Fayre in whatever guise the team required. I ended up with task of selling the raffle tickets.
The Event was attended by around 50 different people connected to the group, the local community and even the MP for Rother Valley, Alex Stafford.
The group raised £203 and raised the profile of their group in the local community.
Alex Stafford said; ‘It was great to meet everyone at the event, filled with fun activities for everyone to get involved with.’

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Friendship Call Case Study – Mandy & Tina

Laura/ / Friendship Calls

Tina is a young student who has been calling participant Mandy since December 2020 they have built up a real friendship over the months talking weekly without fail. Mandy has many health and social problems but never fails to have a weekly laugh with Tina. Tina in turn has helped and supported Mandy through many things, getting her assistance with pension applications and pointing her in the right direction for help. Tina has now departed for university but will stay in touch with Mandy to let her know how she is getting on (with Tina’s consent).

Mandy said “I loved my weekly chats with Tina, we had a laugh and Tina really helped by listening to my worries, I will miss her calls. I wish I could have adopted her!”

Friendship across the generations, no barriers. Mandy is now looking forward to her chats with a new volunteer and hopes to have the same sort of blooming friendship.

Energy Know How

Laura/ / In Your Community

By Noor Salih & Sharon Smith, Community Energy Advisors

I contacted an elderly lady who had spoken to our Making your Money Go Further Project as she was having some issues with her Utility provider.

The client had spoken with a different support provider at the beginning of the year as she believed her bills were expensive compared to her neighbours. She received some support however this was not followed-up as the project ended and her case was not passed onto another advisor, an issue that she found very annoying.

The client has had a smart meter installed that has not worked for over 2 years. She has two meter boxes outside her property and she believes there is another inside but does not know what it is for.

She has recently received a warm home discount payment after applying last year despite probably being eligible for some time and not knowing about the scheme.

She was promised by her energy provider that someone would come to her property in June to read her meters however this never happened. She has difficulty accessing the meters as this requires her to lie on the floor to see one of them. She is not happy with the support and service from her current provider and wants help to switch.

Her current payments are £86.00 per month but as the meters have not been read and the bills have not, as yet been seen, I could not confirm whether this was sufficient to cover usage or whether the bills were accurate. She is going to locate her latest bills and will ask her daughter to take meter readings. On receipt of this information we will arrange to meet face to face to discuss what steps to take next without putting her warm home discount at risk.

Swinburne Social Club BBQ

Laura/ / In Your Community

By Rob Gooding, Community Organiser

On Saturday 28th August Swinburne Social club held their BBQ fundraiser, this was supported by both the HRA and Lottery RotherFed staff teams in both the planning and delivery, this event was first thought of a year ago during the first lockdown as a way of bringing community spirit back to Swinburne place and increasing the group’s membership. Due to restrictions we never managed to hold the event, the group felt that now restrictions had lifted this was a perfect time to hold it, the group held a raffle as well as serving food.

The event was a huge success being attended by 23 people and raising the group £78 which will be used towards the first daytrip that the group will arrange. Winston treated attendees to some homemade South African dishes including sausages and spiced chicken. After the event the group decided it was such a success that they plan to make this an annual event.

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