Katie, a 54 year old lady was a self-referral to the friendship calls. When she first made contact on 13th July, she was very tearful on the phone and extremely nervous. Katie is a victim of rape and domestic abuse, she had recently lost her father to cancer and was now dealing with the news that her mother was end of life with cancer as well. Although Katie informed that she is receiving counselling she admitted that it would take for her to come to terms with what has happened to her during the course of her life. She was very open and honest about the affect everything had had on her and how she was really struggling to cope. I asked her if she was getting any other support or help and she advised that she was not. It was decided that due to Katie been in an extremely vulnerable state, she would receive a call from Jane every Friday until one of our top volunteers was back off leave. This volunteer was chosen for Katie because of her expertise in this field and we strongly felt that Katie would get a lot of benefit from the support of this volunteer. In the interim, Katie was advised to contact her GP and request a referral to her GP’s link worker at social prescribing who would be able to assist her in moving forward. A direct link was also given to Katie to enable her to contact the link worker directly who would then ring her back. Katie has her first call with her new volunteer week commencing 26th July.
Friendship Call Participant – Katie
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