Getting good help

HEALTHWATCH regularly receives feedback from people about local services. People’s stories about treatment are our lifeblood. Have you ever had somebody try to help you but their words or advice just not hit the mark? Some help supports people to feel hopeful, identify their own purpose and confidently take action.

Other help does the opposite, undermining people’s confidence, sense of purpose and independence.

Nesta, an innovation fund, have come up with a checklist that include key characteristics of good help. Good help is all about helping people to identify and achieve their own sense of purpose.

Recognising and building upon the fact the influence and control that each person brings.

Good help can support people to create a positive cycle of action that helps them move towards their goals.

Good help allow the person to take action for themselves, offering practical and emotional support that helps people to take sustained action, helping people to connect with others, sharing of information.

Ryan’s story demonstrates the difference that ‘good help’ can make.

He was on and off the streets for 12 years and felt misunderstood by the people trying to help him. He explains how people “always tried to rush me. Telling me what I’ve got to do.”

He was given advice and solutions that felt impersonal and irrelevant. He wasn’t asked about his own motivations or what else was going on in his life.

Listened

It wasn’t until Ryan got in touch with a local organisation that he started to understand what ‘good help’ was. He felt the organisation listened to his story and found out what motivated him, what he cared about and what he felt confident doing.

Whether people want to find work, improve their health or get the most out of education, ‘good help’ involves understanding what matters to each person.

It is about supporting people to build the confidence they need to take action.

Local charity, Involve run a scheme that provides good information to people – Community Navigators are local volunteers who help people to find their ways to activities, information, organisations which they would enjoy, find useful or benefit from in the local community.

The Community Navigator Scheme is for anyone of any age from Wokingham Borough.

You may be a young parent looking for opportunities to connect with others in a similar situation, you may be of working age and want to find out about sports, exercises classes or music groups you could join, you may be elderly looking to find support to manage your health condition and stay mobile at home.

Community Navigators are based in

GP surgeries across the Borough, just ask the receptionist for details. Navigators are not clinicians but can make a huge difference to your health and wellbeing.

Let Healthwatch know your views. Get in touch:

Phone: 0118 418 1 418

Website: www.healthwatchwokingham.co.uk

App: Speak Up Wokingham (Free to download from Apple or Google Play)

E-Mail: enquiries@healthwatchwokingham.co.uk Facebook: @healthwatchwokingham

Twitter: @HWWokingham Nicola Strudley, works two days a week as the manager for Healthwatch Wokingham Borough. Opinions expressed in this blog are her own