Changes to community services
Here at Making Space, our first priority is always the people we support, their families and carers.
We provide services from Cumbria to Cambridge, supporting people in their own home, in their local community and with specialist support services.
We want to reassure you that whilst we are doing our best to keep life as normal as possible for the people we support, we are also taking additional measures to ensure people’s safety.
Our community services have worked hard to adapt their services in line with the current restrictions. Here is how our community services have adapted to the new restrictions:
Barnsley Integrated Carers Service
More information coming soon.
More information coming soon.
Bradford and Airedale Carers Support
The service is still taking referrals by email or phone. They are continuing to give support, information and advice to carers over the phone or virtually as well as working with care coordinators to provide care and support for the whole family.
The team are also running virtual support groups via Zoom and have WhatsApp groups for support. The Zoom support group takes place every Monday morning at 10:30am.
There is some flexibility to offer face-to-dace support if there is an element of risk i.e. carer breakdown, hospital admission, relapse etc. but working within the governments guidelines.
Wellbeing Service Bradford and Airedale
The team continue to run a Wednesday afternoon Zoom group for volunteers and the people they support. The service has also established a library of online activities and courses, some being supplied by Kirklees College, for people to get involved in.
For the people who are more isolated or vulnerable in their mental health, the team are continuing to offer social distanced walks.
Calderdale Mental Health Carer Support
The service is still taking referrals by email or phone. The team are continuing to give support, information and advice to carers over the phone or virtually as well as working with care coordinators to provide care and support for the whole family.
The team are also running virtual support groups via Zoom and have WhatsApp groups for support. These groups are every third Thursday of the month and every last Monday of the month. They run between 6pm-8pm.
There is some flexibility to offer face-to-dace support if there is an element of risk i.e. carer breakdown, hospital admission, relapse etc. but working within the governments guidelines.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Carer Support Service
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Carer Support Service team are keeping in touch with all our carers via phone and email. The service are also offering social distanced one-to-one walks in line with government policy.
They also have an online carers coffee meeting on 18 January, as well as personal online meetings with carers who keep in touch via Zoom.
Whilst the latest lockdown measures have meant that the team cannot visit carers in their own homes, they remain in regular contact and continue to offer advice, signposting or just a listening ear.
The service is continuing to offer IAPT Assessments, 1:1 treatment and Computerised Cognitive Behavioural therapy all by telephone or video call if people prefer.
They are happy to take self-referrals by telephone or email using the CCBT@makingspace.co.uk inbox or individuals can go through their GP.
More information coming soon.
Cheshire West Carer Support Services
The Cheshire West Carer Support service have launched a carer wellbeing peer support group. This is a weekly zoom meet up, where staff introduce an aspect of mental wellbeing for discussion. Alongside this, the service has a private Facebook page for our carer’s wellbeing needs.
The service have a WhatsApp peer support group which carers use to discuss their caring role, with carer support staff overseeing this.
We are currently offering one to one zoom appointments as well as telephone support.
The Derby City Dementia Support team are providing virtual support groups through Zoom and one-to-one telephone support.
The virtual support groups include weekly coffee mornings with exercises and quizzes, an over 55’s social gathering and a men’s cookery workshop.
The team are providing activity packs that can be posted to home addresses. Each pack contains a variety of activities from word searches, colouring in, quizzes and brain training.
The service is still taking referrals from partners and also self-referrals. Expert dementia advisers are providing telephone assessments.
The team are working from home and supporting their carers both on the phone and digitally.
They do still complete some risk assessed home visits whilst wearing full PPE. This will only happen for initial assessments and essential visits. An essential visit is if a family is at risk of a carer breakdown, patients that are at high risk of harm and any safeguarding issues that need to be addressed.
The face-to-face carers groups have currently been replaced by a Zoom carers support group and the team are also setting up education groups.
Doncaster Carers Reach Out Service
The team are now hosting their social groups on Zoom, as they’re unable to hold them face-to-face.
They are continuing to contact carers on a weekly and fortnightly basis to check on their wellbeing. There is some flexibility to offer face-to-face support in certain circumstances, whilst working with the government’s guidelines.
Fylde and Wyre Employment Development Service
The team are currently providing phone support to the people they support.
The team are continuing to offer virtual support where possible. Risk assessed face-to-face appointments can be arranged in necessary.
Lancashire Employement Development Service
The service remains open, with risk assessed one-to-one sessions taking place between Monday to Friday. Appointments are taking place at their main office but there is also an option to have an outside appointment, weather permitting. Group sessions are not taking place for the time being.
The Day Centre, following current guidance, is able to support vulnerable people in groups of up to 15.
They offer services 5 days a week, between 8am – 5pm, providing a two course lunch, also catering for special diets.
The Day Centre offers an extensive programme of activities, taking social distancing into account. All of their care plans are person centres, and they are constantly reviewing their risk assessments to ensure they have the correct safety measures in place.
Open Door provides a safe haven for immediate crisis management and emotional support, structured guided self-help and IAPT approved computerised CBT programmes, taking a person-centred approach to hearing your needs and creating an action plan.
The team offer support via telephone, WhatsApp, video calling and face to face at our safe haven in the Stockport town centre.
Open Door 24/7 helpline provides emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
More information coming soon.
The team are currently unable to run their Dementia cafes in person, but have replaced them with weekly Zoom meetings. They are continuing to contact carers on a weekly and fortnightly basis to check on their wellbeing.
There is some flexibility to offer face-to-face support in certain circumstances, whilst working with the government’s guidelines.
The Day Centre, following current guidance, is able to support vulnerable people in groups of up to 15.
They offer services 5 days a week, between 8am – 5pm, providing a two course lunch, also catering for special diets.
The Day Centre offers an extensive programme of activities, taking social distancing into account. All of their care plans are person centres, and they are constantly reviewing their risk assessments to ensure they have the correct safety measures in place.
The service is currently offering online groups as well as telephone and video one-to-ones. More information coming soon.
Group sessions at the service will be put on hold and be run virtually wherever possible. The team have put together a new timetable, you can download it here.
The service will be offering one-to-one support either virtually, over the phone, or face-to-face if this is the only option. (Face-to-face support will be held in a Covid safe environment).
The service will continue to offer digital inclusion support for those unable to access technology at home.
Warwickshire User Involvement Service
As a service that supports and co-ordinates service user involvement in order to influence mental health services in Warwickshire, the team have implemented steps to ensure that we continue to support the people who use the service to participate and engage with Mental Health services locally.
Wawickshire Co-production service are providing bi-monthly online forums with different guest speakers.
The team also offer weekly virtual drop-in sessions on Zoom every Thursday 11am-1pm. The sessions are informal and are a great way to share updates and a time to have a chat.
The team also offer one-to-one support to people who are struggling to cope or are feeling isolated. (One-to-one support is limited depending on individual circumstances.)
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