Earlier this summer Kate
Hughes, who works as the Engagement Coordinator for the Older People’s Commissioner
for Wales, visited some of my colleagues at PAVO to find out more about our work. She later wrote a
blog post about her visit for the Older People’s Commissioner
for Wales’ website and with her permission we republish it here. In the
post Kate highlights “some of the excellent work underway in Powys that is
making a big difference to people’s lives.”
I visited Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations (PAVO) in Llandrindod Wells to spend the day with Freda Lacey, PAVO’s Mental
Health Participation and Involvement Officer, and Barbara Perkins, their Community
Voice Officer. They were keen to tell me about some of the outstanding work going
on across Powys, supported by PAVO, which helps organisations and improves
lives.
Powys is the largest county
in Wales, covering a quarter of its land mass, but it is also the least
sparsely populated with an average of 26 people per square kilometre. The
result is a beautiful rural landscape with soaring mountains and acres of
wilderness to explore. There are several population centres, including Newtown,
Welshpool, Llandrindod Wells and Hay-on-Wye, but many people live in remote
areas that are hard to reach. The result is a patchwork of services that cover
the county and a real postcode lottery about what is available to you based on
where you live. The Commissioner often talks about people being in the ‘lucky’
or ‘unlucky box’ and where you live in Powys and whether you have easy access
to transport, can be critical factors in determining which box you are in.
The importance of being able
to access transport is highlighted by the fact that there are no District
General Hospitals in Powys, so people often have to travel long distances and
across borders for diagnosis and treatment. They also told me that older people
whose spouses or partners are very ill in hospital often struggle to make the
journey to Birmingham or Wrexham and that there have been reports of discharge
in the very early hours and a lack of discharge planning.
Rural isolation is also a
huge challenge as people often live at some distance from friends, family and
community services. There have been projects set up to tackle this and to help
support people’s mental health and wellbeing. Freda and Barbara had time to
tell me about some of their favourites:
1. Mid Wales Food and Land Trust: Good Neighbour Project
This project helps people to
do their shopping. Volunteers phone up to find out the items people need and
let them know about special offers etc. They will then shop locally, deliver
and unpack the items people have ordered.
This is a wide-ranging
service that has really helped service users to get involved in designing and
delivering mental health services.
They bring services/(senior
managers) and service users/carers together in local communities so they can
discuss and resolve any problems, if possible, locally. This is a great example
of using patient experience, rather than complaints, to drive improvement.
This service focuses on
people over 50 who are lonely, isolated and risk losing independence. Volunteers work with people for up to a year
and support them to become more involved in their communities. Once volunteers
have been matched, they help people to identify groups and activities they want
to try and support them to try out them out. They try to help people find
social activities they can continue to enjoy long after their involvement has
ended. This project is funded by the Big Lottery Fund, and is running until
October 2016.
There are a range of
initiatives to help Powys become a more supportive place for people with
dementia to live. Hay-on-Wye/Brecon is trailblazing the way to
implement Dementia Friendly Communities in Wales. The aim is to help people and organisations in
local areas to better support people with dementia. An example of some of the
initiatives linked would be the Butterfly Scheme, which provides training in
dementia care within hospitals and is based on the “Reach” programme.
Many thanks to Freda and
Barbara for a fascinating day. I have just skimmed the surface of Powys in this
blog, but I was struck by the range of innovative solutions people in Powys
have found to providing services in such a challenging landscape. I would like
to end with a final thought from the Commissioner, “"When we get it wrong,
the price is never paid by the service, it's paid by the individual and is far
too high".
The situation in Powys may be
challenging, but it is heartening to see that so many people are trying to get
it right.
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