More support than ever before for Carers!
We have some exciting service news for you! We have joined our Carers Agent and Village Agent teams so ALL 55 + agents can now support unpaid Carers in Somerset!
The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown resulted in CCS Agents changing their approach to be ‘whole population ’ focused. This was important for families as it now meant there was one point of contact within the CCS team and no need to repeat themselves to explain their situation.
The model worked brilliantly, and as a result CCS Agents have supported over 7,000 Carers since the end of March 2020, clearly demonstrating that the One Family – One Agent approach was working to reach more unpaid Carers than ever.
CCS is delighted to announce that from September, all Carers Agents will become Village Agents and all existing Village Agents are ready to support unpaid Carers in Somerset.
Nothing has changed other than having a lot more people available to support the unpaid Carer in Somerset.
You may not even recognise yourself as a Carer as you may look after someone infrequently, or informally, but we are here to help you whether you care for your spouse, child, friend or relative.
To have a chat about how we can support you in your caring role, call 0800 31 68 600, text ‘Carer’ to 78070 or visit the dedicated Carers website www.somersetcarers.org
Rehome a Phone!
Do you have an unused smartphone lying around?
By donating an unused phone to us, YOU can help reduce loneliness and isolation for a person in Somerset. We will be facing a very different Christmas this year with a reduction in the usual festive activities, and the possibility of family gathering restrictions, so we are focusing on re-homing as many of these phones our into the community as possible to keep families and friends in touch with each other over the festive period.
We had a brilliant response to our last ‘Rehome-a-phone’ campaign – so many people in need in Somerset have benefitted from a donated device.
One person who received a handset said “You have made my day. This will help me feel not so lonely and I will even be able to do my food shopping online now as I’m house bound and can’t get out”.
We will :
- refurbish the phone
- remove any personal data
- provide the new owner with a SIM card
- support them to use the phone with video tutorials and install apps that will help them to keep in touch with their loved ones
To donate, please contact our Village Agent Ellie Bishop on email: ellieb@somersetrcc.org.uk or call her on 07985 748910
You can find out more here about the impact of our last rehome a phone campaign here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT4wffIRZHU
Talking Cafes Online
We are still unable to bring Talking Cafes back to physical venues and we miss all our clients so much! However we are still live streaming every day at 11am on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/talkingcafesomerset/ and have recently celebrated our 100th broadcast!
If you are not on Facebook you can now watch previous Talking Cafes on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5goIPHD91Ie4VDI5NMJdrQ
Recent Talking Cafes covered Art Therapy, Coping with Grief and changes to our Somerset Waste recycling schemes!
You can comment on the YouTube videos if you have any questions and someone will get in touch with an answer. We hope you enjoy them, let us know what you think!
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