A helping hand to stay at home
A “vitally important” service that carries out more than 300 repairs a month to help older people stay in their homes has had its contract extended.
The team at Care and Repair North Lanarkshire have been working hard for the last three years to provide an affordable service to help home owners of pensionable age – or who are disabled – with small repairs around their house.
These include plumbing repairs, gate and door adjustments and minor electrical work.
The group also provide a handyperson service to help with general tasks such as changing light bulbs, smoke alarms and putting up hand railings.
Services development manager Aileen Carson welcomed the news the council recently announced it is extending the service’s contract until April 2019.
“We enable older people to live in their home as long as possible,” Aileen explained.
“It’s vitally important that older peoples’ homes, especially those who live on their own, are as safe and secure as possible.
“What seem like quite small jobs on the face of it can be very daunting to people with poor mobility. Something as simple as getting up on a chair to change a lightbulb can actually be very dangerous for elderly people. To those in a wheelchair it can make a big difference.”
The service is managed by Horizon Housing Association on behalf of Link Group Ltd, and is funded by North Lanarkshire Council and NHS Lanarkshire.
Aileen believes the service is particularly cost- effective for all involved, as it helps ease the growing pressure on the NHS and care homes while providing a cheaper service for the client.
She added: “We provide qualified and reputable tradespeople for a very affordable price, which is important because some older homeowners do not have a lot of spare cash.
“With dementia a growing issue, rather than moving into another form of housing it will become more important for people to stay in their own home, safely, as long as possible.
“We get a lot of positive feedback, as our care and repair staff are trained in dementia awareness. They are also trained to look out for trip hazards and have good personal skills to put people at ease.”
For more information visit www. northlan.care-and-repair.org.