Kingston Disabled and Older People's Forum Newsletter

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Newsletter Number 8: March 2008

Independence and Well-being Plan - Consultation

Some of you will be aware that last August the Council tightened its eligibility criteria for community care services so that only people with critical or substantial levels of need qualify to receive services. However, when the Council made this decision people were worried about what would happen to those with lower level needs who don’t qualify for a service. So work is now being undertaken on an Independence and Well-being Plan, to develop services for people with lower level needs.

In order to produce the Independence and Well-being Plan, the Council needs to consult with disabled and older people to make sure we understand people’s needs and what they want  the most. I therefore enclose an invitation to a consultation event organised by Kingston Centre for Independent Living on 15 April 2008 at 2pm at the United Reformed Church in Kingston (the same place as we’ve held previous Forum events).

Please read the enclosed invitation and reply as directed if you are able to come – I hope to see you there.

Assisted Waste and Recycling Collection Service

One service we all use in the Borough is the collection of waste and recycling from our homes. However, you may not all be aware that disabled and older people can apply for an assisted collection service if  they have difficulties in using the service - for example, are not able to move their waste or recycling boxes to the edge of their property.

If you have difficulty in using the normal waste and recycling collection service because of your disability, call 020 8547 5560 to ask about the assisted collection service.

Stay Independent Factsheets

In the last newsletter I told you about the Stay Independent Factsheets. These are available for download - please see the link at the bottom of this page to our Staying Independent Factsheets.  So far we have published the following titles:

• Accessible Transport Options
• Blue Badge Scheme
• Complaining about NHS Services
• Finding an NHS dentist
• Holidays and Holiday Grants
• Social Activities
• NEW Finding an Accessible Home

If you think of a topic on which it would be helpful for us to produce a factsheet, please let me know (contact details below).

Contacting the Council and local healthcare providers

If you need to contact me, my details are as follows:

• Jane Young, 020 8547 5314, jane.young@rbk.kingston.gov.uk

I’m often out of the office and at these times Hannah or one of my other colleagues will take a message and I will call you back.

If you have a difficulty in accessing local health services, or you want more information on the accessibility of health provision, you should contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) for the relevant organisation:

• Kingston Primary Care Trust PALS: 020 8339 8107 (for primary care services such as GP, dentist etc)
• Kingston Hospital PALS: 020 8934 3993 (for hospital services)