A revolution in caring

Monday, 30 January 2012

If older people could create a welfare service for themselves what would they want?

It was a big question and it needed a big answer: ageing – and how to address it? The social organisation Participle posed the question in 2007, when it began working with 250 older people.

The answer was Southwark Circle, a network that it hopes will revolutionise the way elderly people are viewed and cared for. And now its impact is about to be felt nationwide.

In the UK, more than three million people over 65 have no contact with a friend, neighbour or family member in any one week, and 1.8 million don’t see anyone they know in a month. Not only do they miss out on social interaction, but their isolation can also leave them struggling with day to day tasks.

Southwark Circle’s aims are simple; to provide practical help with chores such as gardening and DIY through local Neighbourhood Helpers, and to create a social network for teaching, learning and sharing.

For an annual fee of £20, members in the London borough can take part in a packed diary of events ranging from pub quizzes to museum trips. They can also buy tokens which they exchange for assistance from reliable and friendly local Helpers. These helpers range from students to the newly redundant and they will do anything within reason, including teaching someone how to use Facebook, or painting their windowsills. Some members also offer their own services in return for tokens themselves.

Opportunities

At its heart, the organisations aims to make people “visible” to one another, helping them to access opportunities and friendships in their local area that might otherwise pass them by.

It’s not really about age,” explains Ryan Lang, head of operations at Southwark Circle. “We have members in their 50s who are still working and have children at home. It’s about the capabilities of people.

“The way we look at it, people have a lot to offer, it’s about what they can give back.” As Mr Lang explains, connecting people is crucial in increasingly fragmented communities. “A classic example is on one street we might have seven or eight members who don’t know each other.”

Southwark Circle provides a forum to bring those people together, to everyone’s benefit. “What we’re trying to do is to plug people back into practical and social networks so there won’t come a day where this person doesn’t have someone to call to go out with or to ask for help.”

When Southwark Circle began in 2009 it was the first of its kind. But there is now a Circle in Hammersmith and Fulham, another London borough, and one in Suffolk. Another is just about to launch in Nottingham and there are more in the pipeline.

 Mr Lang adds that the idea behind the Circles is to create a system where people don’t feel they are passively “receiving care”, but more that help is available in their neighbourhood should they need it, and that they have something to offer too. “There are so many people out there who view age as being a problem,” he says. Southwark Circle shows this doesn’t have to be the case.