How this caring reducing hospital
Solva Care takes a revolutionary approach to how health and social care is delivered. Laura Clements reports...
NONE of us are immune to the ageing process, yet the way society is today means that getting old is placing an ever greater burden on the NHS. But one community – perhaps the most caring in all of Wales – has come together to help more than 50 elderly residents in a Pembrokeshire village.
Solva Care secured National Lottery funding in 2019 and has used the money to fund initiatives including coffee mornings, lunch clubs, excursions and Friday club.
We visit the village on Friday when the organisation holds Friday club in the village hall. Today, the Ukulele Pirates are performing and there will undoubtedly be dancing and tea and cake.
Not far from the village hall, Sue Woolcott lives in a pretty blue house with her husband Ian. The couple married six years ago and in January 2022 Sue, 58, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Ian has taken a sabbatical to care for his wife full time and Solva Care have been there to support them both.
“I didn’t know what was wrong with me,” Sue said, who worked as a nurse until her illness meant she had to stop. “It was there all the time.”
Ian gently helped to explain that there were things before Sue’s memory loss that signalled there was something wrong. She was “shocked” when she was told she had dementia, but she seems unswayed as she says: “I’m all right now and I can do things for myself.”
Ian is a quiet and supportive presence and said: “I can’t imagine other villages in Pembrokeshire having such a strong community. There’s a big volunteer population in Solva and everyone seems to help each other. They mother the community.”
Solva Care has helped Sue get out independently and accompanied her on coastal walks, which also allows Ian time to himself to catch up on other things.
“I feel better for it,” Sue said. “Sometimes I’m quite sleepy because of the dementia.”
“We haven’t had to ask,” Ian added. “They’ve taken it upon themselves in the nicest sense to help out. If they think something is wrong they will say, ‘What can we do to help?’”
A couple of hours later, we catch up with Sue in the hall and she shows us her best moves on the makeshift dancefloor as the Ukulele Pirates play tunes from bygone days.
Coordinating the not-for-profit organisation is Lena Dixon, aged 63, who worked in insurance but is “good with people and admin”. She has witnessed first hand just how people like Sue benefit from Solva Care.
“We do save the health board money,” she said.
“Hospital admissions among the Solva population have gone down since we started in 2015 and people go home quicker rather than staying in hospital.”
We saw earlier this year how the equivalent of a full Singleton Hospital in Swansea was being taken up by people who were medically well enough to go home but couldn’t. If there are people admitted to hospital, Hywel Dda Health Board will phone Lena to see if they can go home safely. It means hospital beds are released quicker, helping to reduce the strain on NHS capacity.
“If it’s only a matter of shopping or walking the dog, then we can help,” Lena continued. “As long as it’s not hands-on care. It’s a really cheap way of providing support that could be replicated.
“I think what surprises me is that it’s not a one-way system, the support goes both ways,” said Lena. “The project keeps people active, they make more friends and get out and about.”
The job satisfaction is enormous: “You can see the difference you make,” Lena added.
Barbara Bale, 66, has a background in the NHS and also worked in government, so she knows “how to get things done”. She’s been a trustee of Solva Care since 2018 and said: “It’s what I’ve done all my life, it’s just helping people really, it’s my duty.” Not that she does it solely out of duty – it’s something she enjoys too.
“Society has changed in expectations,” she said. “People expect things instantly and things to be done for them. People expect the NHS to be there. Having seen the other side, I know that expectation is unrealistic. What the NHS set out to do in 1948 is different to what people expect today. The NHS can’t afford it.”
It might just be “neighbourly things”, but that’s not to underestimate the impact they can have. The main idea is people stay in their homes and community and can go to places. It’s so people can be part of their community and not feel isolated.
“We do have a lot of people who retire down here,” Lena continued. The volunteers are central to the service, but age is no barrier – there are some volunteers themselves in their 80s.
“I always say it’s doing neighbourly things in an orderly fashion,” Lena added.
Solva Care has been particularly successful at getting a network of volunteers set up and it hopes to join forces with Community Interest Care in Neyland to provide domiciliary care too. A lot of the volunteers – admittedly many of them are women – feel like they are giving back.
“It’s satisfying and you do get to know people and people become friends,” Barbara said.
Both women say isolation and loneliness is the biggest factor in peoples’ health and wellbeing: “People living alone have no one to talk to and they