Supporting Age UK West Kent Befriending Service
Published: 20/06/2017
We regularly support our local charities and are pleased to be supporting our local Age UK in West Kent who have a befriending service to provide valuable voluntary support to people in the community. Our Community Liaison Manager, Nathan, runs Dementia Friends sessions for all their new volunteers and has been involved in their work for just over two years.
We regularly support our local charities and are pleased to be supporting our local Age UK in West Kent who have a befriending service to provide valuable voluntary support to people in the community.Our Community Liaison Manager, Nathan, runs Dementia Friends sessions for all their new volunteers and has been involved in their work for just over two years.
As a thank you, the befriending service recently gave out certificates to all their volunteers and Nathan was delighted to receive his!
Nathan explained that:
Supporting the befriending service is undoubtedly one of my favorite parts of what I do with Bluebird Care and I know that the Dementia Friends sessions I run make a tangible difference to the local community.
The voluntary support that Age UK provide particularly has an impact on loneliness among older people and also gives carers a much needed break.
A recent poll that we ran identified some surprising statistics about loneliness among older people. The poll found that:
The voluntary support that Age UK provide particularly has an impact on loneliness among older people and also gives carers a much needed break.
- Two million older people have spent a week without seeing any one
- Some four million older people (36%) speak to less than one person a day (5 people a week or less)
- Some 4.5 million older people (39%) feel lonely either often or sometimes
- Some 3.4 million older people (30%) would not admit to someone they trust that they are lonely
- While 5.4 million (47%) say they do not have access to support when they are feeling lonely
Nathan's support is so valuable to our service. As with all of our volunteers, he is very passionate about what he does and I think it is excellent that Bluebird Care have chosen to support the community in this way.
If you would like to find out a little more about the Dementia Friends initiative, you can visit dementiafriends.org.uk for more information.For more information about the West Kent Befriending service, click here.
