Services delivered on a plate
EIGHT DECADES OF EXPERIENCED CARE DELIVERING POSITIVE OUTCOMES
The issues the charity supports have not changed much across the years. Care services provided continue to tackle issues with isolation, loneliness, to support those with dementia, mobility issues, food poverty, mental health problems and to provide support for carers. These vital services enable the elderly to remain living in their own homes, to stay physically and mentally well, to remain connected, to stay mobile and active and to eat well.
VITAL SERVICES DELIVERED TODAY
LifeCare provides essential help and support through its three centre-based Day Clubs at The Cottage, St Bernard’s and The
Dean, Registered Outreach, Help at Home, Meals on Wheels, and community engagement activities.
LifeCare and the Space (Broomhouse) also operate a partnership project, Vintage
Vibes, which tackles the social isolation and loneliness of over 60s. From the Cheyne Street building in Stockbridge, LifeCare runs the fully accessible community café
“CaféLife” and operates the community hub for local classes, activities and clubs.
HELP AT HOME
Help at Home (HAH) has been running for nine years and has provided more than 70,000 hours of support to people in Edinburgh. HAH provides regular and reliable support with household tasks, cleaning and shopping. When things become more difficult to manage, the charity is there to provide flexible and tailored support that can help people stay independent and enjoy life in their own home. HAH is for anyone aged over 50, who is living with dementia, is struggling with mobility or has poor health, as well as those who care for them.
FOCUS ON FOOD
The charity has always understood the importance of providing good nutritional food for local older people. In the 1940s, the charity set up a daily lunch service for those unable to cook and they established a small Meals on Wheels service - a new idea at the time. This was reintroduced by the charity to support the most vulnerable during the pandemic. Thanks to funding from the Barclays 100x100 Covid Community Relief
Fund, LifeCare’s Meals on Wheels service has now been launched as a social enterprise to provide fresh, nutritious meals to people in the community long term. The service is open to people over 50 years old with health and/or support needs living in North Edinburgh & Leith.
COVID-19
Since March 2020, the charity has supported more than 770 individuals with vital positive support designed to protect and maintain the physical and mental health of some of the most isolated older people.
LifeCare’s professional and committed care workers and volunteers have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to safely deliver essential registered care, practical help within the home and adapted usual companionship activities to ensure isolated older people received the support they needed to stay well. The charity also launched several new initiatives, specifically designed to help support the most isolated and lonely local older people.
As the crisis struck, the charity grew extremely concerned about how older people would cope with usual in-person services, Day Clubs and activities all closed, and many clients told to shield. They feared many older people would go for a significantly long time without seeing or speaking to anyone else.
Unlike other younger generations, many clients do not have access or the ability to use virtual technology such as FaceTime or Zoom.
Without the right support, this whole new level of loneliness created by Covid-19 could have caused a rapid deterioration in an older person’s health and abilities.
LifeCare therefore worked hard to ensure all those in need received the care they needed to survive and to maintain their strength and abilities, and once able, return to the communities