Retirement
Living
customers supported in our retirement living schemes
Warm Welcomes
To support customers with their heating bills during the cost-of-living crisis, teams across six of our Retirement Living schemes have been running our Warm Welcome Wednesday and Warm Hub sessions throughout winter, which have given customers somewhere warm to go in the daytime to keep their own heating bills down.
Anyone interested in joining was invited into communal areas to play games and quizzes, exercise, have a hot drink and talk to their neighbours. Nearly 400 people turned up to join the sessions!
Thanks to charity partners like Age UK and the British Heart Foundation, those attending the Warm Welcome sessions were able to get advice and tips on things such as fire and electrical safety, digital skills, cooking on a budget, physical activity, energy efficiency and more. They were also given a free blanket as part of the initiative to provide some extra comfort and warmth during the colder months.
“The exercises made me stretch well and I enjoyed playing the games with my friends”
Stonewater Retirement Living customer
Striving for change
Building on the success of our INVITE project, we’ve continued our partnership with the University of Stirling to drive further research on ageing well.
The Intersectional Stigma of Place-based Ageing (ISPA) project is the next step of INVITE and is aimed at exploring the lived realities of disabled adults with sensory and mobility impairments, identifying how different types of stigma (such as age, disability, and place) create barriers to living inclusively.
Around 12 members of our team are involved in this research which, once complete, will make recommendations for changes to improve services and resources for older people across the country. Together with the University of Stirling, we’ll be producing an `Inclusive Living Toolkit` to deliver practical interventions in areas of Multiple Deprivation and support organisations to understand and tackle intersectional stigma.
Trusted Assessor training
To support our customers to live safely and independently in their own homes, Retirement Living colleagues have completed a Trusted Assessor course, giving them the skills and knowledge to carry out assessments for small aids in the home.
The Trusted Assessor award will allow staff to prescribe low-level equipment, such as chair and bed raisers and grab rails, making the process quicker for customers and giving Occupational Therapists more time to focus on complex cases.
With the help of Disabled Living Foundation Training, we hope to give our customers peace of mind and provide them with everything they need to make their home somewhere they can thrive.
Janet, one of our Scheme Coordinators, passed her course with flying colours and received fantastic feedback about her understanding and passion to help others.