Community support and awareness for older adults looking for or living in housing with care and support

During the Commission, people who draw on care and support told us about the importance of the wider community and services in providing information advice and advocacy, helping older people maintain links with their community, supporting people’s religious activities, connecting and supporting LGBTQ+ older adults, building cross-generational links and supporting those groups with specific or intersectional needs that may ‘fall between the cracks’.

Below are some examples of community support and awareness activities that work with older adults considering, actively looking for or living in housing with care and support.

Case study

• Silverlinks Open

  Model of housing or service: community support

  Principles of excellence: enabling choice and control; person centred and outcome focused

  View: Full case study - Silverlinks

Promising practice examples

• Bring Dementia Out Open

  Model of housing or service: community support and awareness

  Principles of excellence: promoting equality; enabling choice and control

  Launched in December 2019, Bring Dementia Out, provides advice, guidance and support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) people living with dementia and those who are supporting them. This LGBT Foundation programme is supported by the Guinness Partnership, and works in partnership with National Dementia Action Alliance, Switchboard (Brighton & Hove), National LGB&T Partnership and LGBT Consortium. The programme started in Brighton and Hove and Greater Manchester with plans to roll out across England.

  Bring Dementia Out aims to address the lack of visibility and awareness of LGBT people living with dementia in dementia care and housing services. The programme provides training and information which will encourage the accurate monitoring of people drawing on social care and housing services, as well as support dementia and housing organisations to understand and address the challenges LGBT people living with dementia can face.

  An e-learning course for those working in the fields of dementia, housing and care has been developed and is available to everyone who might benefit from the learning. Despite the challenges faced by the pandemic, the first phase of the training package was launched at the end of September 2020.

• Regenerate – RISE Open

  Model of housing or service: community support and awareness

  Principles of excellence: community connectedness; person centred and outcome focused; enabling choice and control

  Regenerate – RISE, based in Platt Christian Centre in Putney, London, is a charity with a mission to eradicate isolation across the UK. RISE tackles isolation and social exclusion amongst older people by using a model which has been operating in Putney and Roehampton since 2001. The charity provides a variety of services including lunches, outings, pastoral and practical support, outreach, hospital and home visiting. Activities offered include art, bingo, computer use, entertainment, music for all, chair-based exercises, quizzes, parties, films, falls clinics, health topics, outings to places of interest and other day centres, pub lunches and many more. The overall aim is to promote community connectedness and improve outcomes for those using the services on offer.

  RISE believes in celebrating life, fulfilling dreams, forming friendships and giving older people a reason to live. Inspired by the experience of a lady named Rose, the charity is planning to build a 10-room reablement centre to help address the issue of older people who are well enough to leave hospital but for whom a care package in their home is not yet in place. The centre provides occupational therapy and physiotherapy and work to help people maintain as much independence as possible. The availability of the centre enables greater choice and control by providing people with space and time to make decisions about their future care and accommodation.

  We believe that Reablement includes social interaction, eating together, physical exercise and giving people the will to live again - through a programme of tailored individual support.

  RISE

• Meri Yaadain Open

  Model of housing or service: community support and awareness

  Principles of excellence: promoting equality;; co-production and shared decision making

  Initially set up in 2006, Meri Yaadain, meaning ‘my memories’, is a Community Interest Company which seeks to raise awareness of dementia in Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities. Recognising that dementia can be a taboo subject for many people in the BAME communities, Meri Yaadain has four key aims. Firstly, to raise awareness of dementia and its symptoms and behaviours amongst the BAME communities. Secondly, to work with service providers to challenge inequalities regarding availability of information, including accessible languages, and culturally appropriate dementia support services. Thirdly, to work in co-production with BAME people living with dementia and their family carers to design and deliver culturally competent training for organisations and individuals. The fourth and final aim is to raise awareness of the challenges for BAME people living with dementia and their family carers at a local, regional, national and international level.

  To achieve these aims, Meri Yaadain works with communities and families and in partnership with statutory and voluntary community organisations to offer support, advice, guidance and training so that they are better able to meet the needs of BAME people living with dementia and their carer(s). Meri Yaadain believes that by tackling bias and prejudice, culturally competent services can be further developed and equality promoted.

• Information NOW Open

  Model of housing or service: community support and awareness

  Principles of excellence: enabling choice and control

  Information NOW is an information website for adults, their families and carers who live in Newcastle, England. It aims to help people stay informed, make choices, plan ahead, be independent and have an excellent quality of life.

  Information NOW was created in 2006 by The Quality of Life Partnership, a partnership of Age UK Newcastle, Elders Council of Newcastle and Newcastle Healthy City, with and for older people in Newcastle. The website provides local information and advice and is supported by Newcastle City Council and Newcastle Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Groups. Originally designed for use by older people, in 2018 the information range was broadened to include adults of all ages who are resident, working and regular visitors to the City. There is a variety of information available, from what to do in your spare time, to managing your money, coping with family issues, choosing or adapting housing, keeping active, motivated and healthy. There is information on housing for older people specifically, which includes an overview of the range of different housing with care and support options as well as signposting to other sources of information. Categories of information are visually displayed and easy to access with an additional option to search for organisations and events. The website continues to grow from strength to strength with up to 21,000 visitors a month.

• Bristol Ageing Better Open

  Model of housing or service: community support and awareness

  Principles of excellence: promoting equality; co-production and shared decision making; person centred and outcome focused; community connectedness

  The Bristol Ageing Better (BAB) is a partnership of over 150 organisations focused on reducing isolation and loneliness among older people. The partnership was set up in 2015, to create an environment in which organisations can deliver effective services and share their knowledge of what works when supporting older people to live better. The partnership is led by Age UK Bristol and was funded for five years by the National Lottery Community Fund as part of its Fulfilling Lives: Ageing Better programme.

  The partners represent a wide spectrum of organisations, including statutory, voluntary and commercial. The programme’s main aims were to reduce isolation and loneliness in older people in Bristol across four main themes:

  1. Creating the Conditions to reduce and prevent loneliness, including age-friendly neighbourhoods that provide suitable housing for older people
  2. Identifying and Informing older people at risk of loneliness
  3. Working with Communities to increase the services and activities available, including working with care homes and engaging LGBTQ+ people.
  4. Supporting Individuals to live fulfilling lives

  During the course of the programme, BAB funded 26 projects and 18 pilot projects, all focused on preventing loneliness among older people in Bristol. The funding stage of the programme has now ended and BAB’s sixth year will be focused on contributing to learning on a national level and consolidating an age-friendly city approach in Bristol. This includes establishing a team of older community researchers who will be integral to all the evaluation activities undertaken as part of BAB.

• Granny Bees at Jaybees Childcare Open

  Model of housing or service: community support and awareness

  Principles of excellence: community connectedness; person centred and outcome focused

  Granny Bees is an intergenerational project whereby residents of a care home regularly visit a local nursery. The project was initiated by the management of Jaybees Childcare. The aim of the project is to create an environment where the ‘juniors’ and ‘seniors’ can enjoy each other’s company and learn from each other at a pace that suits everyone. The project has helped develop community connectedness, reduce isolation and improve outcomes for the ‘seniors’ and provided extra support and role models for the ‘juniors’.

  The project began with one lady called Heather. Heather is an older lady who has early onset dementia. In her younger days, Heather had worked in child care and had a great deal of experience and expertise. She began to visit the nursery one afternoon a week and over time this increased to three afternoons. Staff at Jaybees were trained in dementia awareness and as the success of Heather’s visits became clear, Jaybees bought Heather a uniform and paid for her to be registered on the Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme (PVG). Heather was awarded the Generations Working Together Intergenerational Volunteer of the Year 2020.

  The children have benefitted by gaining a new friend. Heather is someone who will listen, sit and chat if they are feeling worried or lonely. The children have also improved their ability to communicate with an older person. Heather has gained a sense of purpose and feels more valued for who she is. She has also found an outlet for her enthusiasm, kindness and life skills. Heather has increased her social connectivity and become more independent and after initially being dropped off at the nursery by her daughter, progressed to traveling the one stop bus journey on her own. She reports feeing less lonely and is enjoying an environment where she feels truly welcomed and valued.

  Following the success of Heather’s participation, Westfield, a local care home, were excited to join the scheme and residents regularly visit the children.