Help at Home Scheme

Service user celebrating her 100th birthday. Richard Shearing, Manager, Help at Home Scheme (Photograph courtesy of the Shropshire Star)

The Help at Home Scheme aims to help older people maintain independence in their home and is funded by Shropshire County Council.

There are two elements to the Scheme.
1. Providing practical help
The Scheme employs paid workers called home support workers. They carry out some everyday tasks that an older person may find difficult to manage. These tasks include:
- vacuuming and dusting
- cleaning inside windows
- bathroom and kitchen cleaning
- shopping and collecting prescriptions
- gardening and small DIY jobs
- laundry and ironing
There is a small weekly charge for this service.

The paid element of the scheme providing the practical help has currently reached a point where all funding has been committed. The Help at Home scheme is currently taking referrals for the service.

Who is eligible for this service?
A person has to be:
- over 65
- not in receipt of personal care
- living in the County of Shropshire

2. Volunteer Befriending Service
Age Concern has a team of volunteers who can visit older people in their own homes and provide a friendly social visit. Volunteers can help by:
- having a chat
- accompanying on walks and shopping trips
- helping with small tasks
- playing scrabble/cards
- befriending

The befriending element of the scheme, which is operated by volunteers, continues to grow with the recruitment of additional volunteers.

An additional service on offer is telephone buddying. Telephone buddy volunteers come into the Age Concern office in Mardol Gardens on a Monday morning to ring older people for a friendly weekly chat. The prospect of a telephone friend is proving very attractive to many older people who often feel lonely and isolated.

All home support workers and volunteers have received training and have been Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checked.