Powys Befrienders - knitting for wellbeing

When I have time, especially in the winter, I like to knit and listen to the radio. I find it very therapeutic. Its rhythmic and repetitive nature has often been compared to meditation. Many of my office colleagues knit too, and we love to pass on tips about our favourite yarns and patterns. We might have a bonding moment or two comparing bamboo knitting needles and angora wools when the broadband dips out for a couple of minutes…

This Tuesday I was invited to meet another friendly group of knitters and crocheters at Abbeyfield House in Newtown for their regular fortnightly session. If you’re a knitting enthusiast, you’ve probably come across the Knit & Natter concept. This incarnation is the Newtown Knit Tea Together group set up by the Powys Befriending Service. (Read Powys Befrienders – it’s given me back my life for more on this PAVO project generally). It was snowing, so not all the regulars had been able to make it, but Eileen, Betty and Carol were joined by first-timer Olive for a chat, loads of laughs, and plenty of knitting, sewing and crocheting.

Olive works on a twiddle mitt

This week they were busy making twiddle mitts and cushions for people locally living with dementia. (Online pattern for knitters!) “People with dementia are always looking for things to touch,” they explained, “so we sew bells, beads, eyes and Velcro to the mitts, and people find them very therapeutic.” While I was there Lesley Austen, the Powys Befriending Services Co-ordinator, arrived to gather up mounds of the mitts to take to Bethshan Care Home, also in Newtown. Past group projects have included making baby blankets for local maternity services, and creating colourful knitted toys and clothes to raise funds for the group. At a market stall in Glanhafren, Newtown Market Hall, on 8 December, they raised £380 through sales, and are now planning a summer stall.

While the women sit and sew they swop tips, plan trips – including activities and shopping – and update each other about the latest local news stories. They happily share their skills, and experience. Carol promises to teach Olive how to crochet the next time they meet. There’s a haberdashery moment and in five minutes Eileen’s volunteering to shop at her favourite supplier for all the others. And who would have known that the best and cheapest way to stuff a knitted doll is to pull a pillow apart for the filling? 

L-R: Lesley (Powys Befriending Service Co-ordinator), Olive & Eileen
"Tell me again, what's a split stitch in knitting...?"

Why we like to knit and crochet

"It relaxes you. It keeps your hands moving. It you have arthritis it helps to keep them moving. You have to keep active."

"It keeps your brain moving too! If you’ve got one! It helps keep your mind off a lot of problems. You can take it out in your knitting. You go faster if you’re in a bad mood!"

Several members of the Newtown Knit Tea Together group are also active Powys Befriending Service volunteers in their local community. The two volunteers present tell me about the clients they support. One is a gentleman with Parkinson’s disease who is visited at home, and another is a lady who is supported to attend afternoon teas at the Smithfield Bell in Welshpool, or the Lakeside Restaurant at the golf course near Montgomery.

Carol does crochet... and is also a PB volunteer

Later Lesley told me more about Eileen’s contribution as a Powys Befriending Service volunteer:

Eileen’s husband died after a prolonged illness and was bedridden for the last 6 months of his life. He did not want to be in hospital so Eileen had cared for him at home supported by Health and Social Services. For over a year she had rarely left the house and had lost a lot of confidence about going out on her own as well as suffering from grief and loneliness. Her daughter referred her to the Powys Befriending Service and accompanied her to one of our group lunches.

Eileen was very chatty and helped people sitting around her. At the end of the session, when I asked how she had got on, she said she loved it: “But I’m so much better off than some of the others, wouldn’t I be of more use helping them?”

Eileen duly attended the Befriending Induction training, got her DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service) approval and two glowing references and asked “When do I start?” She didn’t want to have to drive too far, so I matched her to a housebound gentleman with early stage dementia and other health needs who lived a few miles away. As we approached the gentleman’s house she told me she and her husband used to walk in the area and used to chat to a lovely man tending his garden – and this was the gentleman she was getting matched to!

Both he and his wife recognised Eileen and were delighted to see a familiar face. The client has memory loss and several health conditions requiring appointments and visits, so we agreed Eileen would visit every two weeks. The match is a great success – both client and volunteer share a farming background and enjoy talking about farming and the local countryside, reading the local paper and following sports events on TV. 

The client’s wife now has a regular couple of undisturbed hours when she can do things that she enjoys, getting out in the garden, baking and having a chat on the phone with friends, which she had not previously been able to do easily, having to keep an ear and eye out for her husband’s needs.

This still left Eileen with time on her hands and a will to help people, so she asked if it would be possible to have another client to see on alternate weeks and is now also matched with a lady who had no means of getting out and about. She takes this lady to an afternoon tea group, and is now supporting the group by helping with clients.

Eileen then asked if she could come along to the Newtown Knit Tea Together group as she loves knitting and sewing, and after a few sessions she and another volunteer were quite happy to run the group themselves with me in the background for occasional support. Lots of our female clients list amongst their interests knitting, crochet and sewing, but no longer have anyone to make things for. Eileen soon armed them with patterns, needles and wool and got them making baby clothes in premature sizes, which we now send in regular parcels to Special Care Baby Units in Welsh Hospitals.

Oh did I mention…………… Eileen is 86 years young!

Eileen told me “I get as much out of being a volunteer as the people we help. It’s been a lifeline to me since I lost my husband.”

Betty with one of her knitted dolls

If you would like to join the Newtown Knit Tea Together group run by the Powys Befriending Service (don’t worry if you can’t knit, sew or crochet – there are plenty who will happily teach you) then give Lesley a call to find out more on 01597 822191 or email: lesley.austen@pavo.org.uk

Are you a knitter or crocheter? Does it help boost your emotional wellbeing? Let us know in the comments box below.

Safe, Safe, Safe – Standards for Health for mental health organisations

Nicky Morris (Ponthafren Association) receives a Standards for
Health certificate from Lesley at the charity's recent AGM 

My colleague Lesley Austen has been working for the past 12 months at Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations as the Safe Services Officer. Amongst many other things, she has supported organisations in the mental health voluntary sector to engage with the “Standards for Health” quality assurance scheme.

Safe Services is an increasingly important element of supporting the Third Sector to grow and thrive and we wanted to find out more. We caught up with Lesley at her PAVO base at Plas Dolerw in Newtown to ask a few questions.

What does a Safe Services Officer do on a daily basis?

I provide one to one support to organisations to help them comply with the standards. We map the standards against any existing quality assurance which may already be in place to avoid duplications.

Can you give us a bit more background information about the Standards for Health and explain why they are so important?

The ‘Doing Well, Doing Better Standards for Health Services in Wales’ came into force from the 1st April 2010 and replaced the previous standards that were introduced in 2005. The framework of standards (2010) sets out the requirements of what is expected of all health services in all settings.

Engaging with Standards for Health ensures organisations have the quality assurance in place to comply with Welsh Government issued National Minimum Standards for Independent Healthcare Services in Wales and be eligible to apply for Health Board funding, through grants, commissioning and tendering.

How can an organisation and/or service use the Standards?

A ‘How To’ guide has been developed to assist third sector organisations to use the Standards for Health Services. The guide aims not only to support you and your organisation/service to use the Standards, but also help NHS organisations and professionals to assure themselves that third sector partners delivering health services and care meet and use the Standards too.

If organisations do not comply with the Standards what implications does that have?

Current funding may not be renewed; opportunities for commissioning may be closed to them.

If an organisation is unclear about how to achieve the necessary Standards, what can the staff and/or volunteers do?

PAVO provides FREE information and training to help voluntary organisations in Powys comply with the Standards. You can contact me to find out more (see details below) or check out the PAVO website here.

How much work is involved in achieving the Standards?

For established organisations, not very much – most of the policies and procedures are already in place, and unlike some quality assurance system there is no requirement to produce a huge portfolio of evidence.

Organisations are asked to firstly identify which of the 26 standards apply to the service they provide, document what they have in place (on prepared electronic templates) and index where physical evidence (policies, documents, posters etc) are stored or displayed.

Then they identify what if anything they need to do to comply with the standards and develop an improvement plan (again on a prepared template) in order to achieve it.

Talk us through a particularly rewarding aspect to your role

PAVO recently had the great pleasure of presenting a certificate of completed engagement with the Standards for Health Quality Assurance system to Ponthafren Association at the organisation's recent AGM.

Ponthafren Association is the first organisation in Powys supported by PAVO to complete the process and their commitment and diligence will not only act as an incentive to other organisations, their approach will act as a framework of good practice and an aid to working with the Standards.

What are the most challenging aspects of the role?

The geography of Powys – everywhere takes so long to get to – but it also makes the journeys very enjoyable!

Tell us about the most valuable thing you have learnt since starting your role?

The variety and varying needs of the Third Sector in Powys and the untiring commitment of the army of volunteers who sustain it.

How did you come to work at PAVO originally?

Finding too much time on my hands after working for over 20 years in the voluntary sector in Wales, I thought my experience may be of benefit as a volunteer. I was fortunate to find an interesting opportunity at PAVO, and using my previous experience of Quality Assurance implementation I assisted in the achievement of PQASSO (Practical Quality Assurance System for Small Organisations) level 2.

After volunteering for a year, when a part time post became available, I applied, and the rest – as they say – is history!

Of course, you’re not just the Safe Services Officer at PAVO. You’ve had a number of other roles since joining the organisation. Tell us a little about them.

Whilst I was volunteering, I undertook the stakeholder feedback survey for the year, and was both surprised and honoured to be asked to write up the final report; de-duplicated the contacts in our complicated data base system and did preparatory work on other quality assurance systems.

As well as my Safe Service role, I also work as a Community Development Officer 2 days per week, providing advice and training to both new and established voluntary organisations, deliver outreach information sessions, assist with preparing grant applications, constitutions, charities registration etc.

What do you like to do in your own time when you’re not working for PAVO?

Spending time with my family – husband, five children and eight grandchildren - which takes up quite a lot of my time as they are spread between Anglesey, Brighton, Glasgow and Amsterdam!

I love to cook, especially to bake and always enjoy trying something new and the combination of those two activities is great – when my dining table is jam-packed with the people I love and the food that they love to eat. You can watch Lesley’s cookery YouTube channel here.

My other great passion is family history and so far I have traced mother’s maternal ancestry back to the 1600s and my father’s paternal ancestry to the early 1700s – it is an ongoing quest with every answer posing another dozen questions.

I also enjoy spending time in my garden, though my role is more artistic director than using the spade and hoe!  It’s a wild country cottage garden and not everyone’s taste – but I love it.

For more information please contact Lesley Austen, Safe Services Officer, email: lesley.austen@pavo.ork.uk or tel: 01597 822191.