Janet* is housebound and confined to one room due to mobility issues and a fear of falling over. She lives with her husband and two autistic adult sons.
The 75-year-old has a supportive family and care workers visit twice a day, six times a week to provide help. But Janet still feels isolated and lonely because of her health issues.
She has chronic lymphedema – swelling in her legs – which makes moving around difficult. A medical professional also needs to apply a dressing because of her condition.
After recently being discharged from hospital, Janet was cared for on a virtual ward – where care and support is provided at home with the help of technology – before being referred to Sutton social prescribing team by a nurse.
The team got in touch with Janet to explain the services it offers. In particular, she wanted to know more about services that could help her with form-filling.
A Sutton link worker arranged a late afternoon visit to her home – as requested by Janet – to find out what was important to her and listen to her worries about her health, mobility and isolation.
Janet was then referred to local charity Age UK Sutton for help with completing forms.
The link worker also arranged a referral to a local befriending scheme. The befriender then provided information about other social inclusion groups as well.
In addition, the link worker contacted the occupational therapy service to arrange a recliner chair for Janet. They explained to the nurse that the medical issue with Janet’s legs remained a concern.
Having built up a rapport with the link worker, Janet felt reassured that she was being helped in the right way.
“Thank you for your support and time. We really appreciate it and it has been very helpful to know that if we need your service again we are familiar with it and how to access it.”
Janet
* Name changed to protect privacy