Independence and Well being - our Plan Keeping independent, safe and well means * Having the right information, advice and support to make decisions and choices in your life * Getting the right support to look after a family member or friend * Having the right daily living equipment to help make your life easier * Getting the right information and advice to help you keep as healthy and well as you can * Being supported to look after yourself * Being supported with money matters including welfare benefits * Being supported to work, learn and take up leisure opportunities * Being supported to socialise with family and friends and be part of the community The people who helped us make this Plan * A lot of people and organisations have helped us make this Plan, including: * Our colleagues in the voluntary sector such as Age Concern - Kingston, MIND in Kingston, Kingston MENCAP, Kingston Centre for Independent Living; * Members of the public and service users and carers who fed back their views during our consultation on changing our eligibility criteria; * Health and social care staff. Many thanks to you all! What is the Plan about? Prevention is better than cure! This Plan is about: * supporting people to keep themselves independent, safe, and well, and; * how we support community organisations to help people to enjoy an active and independent life and carry on living in their own homes, close to their family and friends. How the Plan came about Last year we decided that as our money was limited the fairest way to share out our resources was to target our support on those people who needed the most help to stay independent, safe and well. When we asked service users, their families and local residents what they thought about our Plan, they said they were worried that people with less serious needs would miss out and be left to fend for themselves. Our Independence and Well Being Plan is an answer to people’s worries. It’s about planning services that everyone can use to help themselves to stay independent, safe and well. Who is the Plan for? This Plan is for: * People aged 18 or over who live in the Royal Borough of Kingston; * People who are not currently getting health and social care services; * Young people moving from Children’s Services to Community Care Services for adults; * Parents with mental health needs and their children, and; * Disabled parents and their children. What is our Plan trying to achieve? Our Plan is trying to make sure that: * local people and organisations are involved in planning services that meet their needs; * services that help people to help themselves are available, user-friendly and close by to where people live; * services that help people to help themselves are easy to find and use; * information and advice about local services is available and easy to find and use; * local community organisations are encouraged and supported to work well together to help people to keep themselves independent, safe and well. How will we know if our Plan is working? We think our Plan will be a success if: More older people, people with learning disabilities, people with mental health needs, disabled people, people who misuse drugs or alcohol, and people with sight or hearing loss: Work, volunteer, use leisure services, get benefits advice, use education services, make more social contact with others, use services that help them keep independent, safe and well. And the number of people needing a lot of help from Community Care Services goes down What do we plan to do next? There are already a number of ways people can be involved in planning services. There are also many services that everyone can use now to help them keep independent, safe and well. But we need to do more. Here are a number of important things we feel we need to do to make our Plan happen. We will involve people in planning local services * We will ask people what services they want to help them keep independent, safe and well We will make it easier for people to use services that help them help themselves * We will extend the ‘Independent and Active’ self-help website to include more services and self-care information and advice which people can use by themselves or with help from local organisations * We will produce a plan to make it easier to find out about and use local transport facilities so that people can use community-based services * We will improve support for people looking after a family member or friend (Carers) * We will develop training for staff to help them better understand mental health and drug and alcohol issues and where to guide people to get help * We will create more affordable adult education opportunities * We will increase the availability of English classes and interpreters for people who speak little or no English * We will develop more web based self-help information sheets We will improve information and advice about self-help and local services * We will produce an easy to use guide to local services that will help people to keep independent, safe and well. * We will support the Infoproject to carry on bringing together everyone involved in producing local information and producing its information sheets * We will offer computer classes to people to help them use the Internet to find out what’s available locally and elsewhere to help them look after themselves * We will produce easy to get and use information and advice on a variety of services and self-help topics such as healthy living, welfare benefits, money advice, carers’ services, daily living equipment, housing advice, support to maintain the home, foot-care, continence care, low-vision and hearing support, and advice on keeping safe. * We will improve mental health awareness and make it easier for people with mental health needs to use everyday services such as leisure, employment, adult education and more. We will offer more user-friendly services that are close to where people live * We will develop ‘one-stop’ community-based services where possible. * We will support groups and organisations to reach out to local people, particularly ‘hard to reach’ people, and encourage them to get involved in volunteering, befriending and practical self-help schemes. * We will work together with local health, social care and voluntary services, extended schools, children’s centres, libraries, adult education centres, leisure facilities, community groups, GP practices, health clinics, and faith groups to provide ‘joined-up’ support in a range of local settings. We will encourage local organisations and people to work together to help people to help themselves * We will develop ways to work with local people, in particular vulnerable groups, to shape the future of local services. * We will support people to get the skills and know-how to be able to help themselves. * We will create opportunities for people to become involved in volunteering work. * We will train local people to get the skills to be able to offer adult education, physical activity, befriending, and information and advice services. * We will employ local people. * We will develop neighbourhood care services such as local clubs, buddy schemes, gardening projects and prescription collection services, using local volunteers. What do you think of our Plan? Tell us what you think of our Plan. We are very keen to hear from you, so please have your say. Please come along to one or more of our public meetings - there’s no need to book - we will be pleased to see you! Otherwise, you can get in touch with us, or fill in our questionnaire, whatever suits you best! Public meetings 10 March - 2pm Kingston Pensioner’s Forum Kingston United Reformed Church, Eden Street, Kingston KT1 1HZ 26 March - 2pm Christ Church Centre 91 Coombe Road, New Malden, KT3 4RE Telephone: 020 8942 0915 2 April - 7.30pm Kingston MENCAP Dysart School, 190 Ewell Road, Surbiton KT6 6HL 15 April - 2pm Kingston Centre for Independent Living Kingston United Reformed Church, Eden Street, Kingston KT1 1HZ 23 April - 1pm Hook Centre The Hook Centre, Hook Road, Chessington KT9 1EJ Telephone: 020 8547 6480 Help and Information If you need help to attend or take part in a meeting, or you just want to tell us what you think about our Plan, please contact Charlotte or Phil: Charlotte Fitzgerald Telephone: 020 8547 6002 Email: charlotte.fitzgerald@rbk.kingston.gov.uk Phil Levick Telephone: 020 8547 6103 Email: philip.levick@rbk.kingston.gov.uk Some Questions Please help us answer these questions Please help us by answering these questions. Your answers will help us plan the right kind of support people need to help them keep independent, safe and well. 1. What two things would help you to keep or become more independent? (a) (b) 2. What two things would help you to keep or become safe? (a) (b) 3. What two things would help you to keep or become well? (a) (b) 4. How do you know what help you can get? 5. Where would you like to go to find out what help you can get? 6. Is there anything that stops you getting that help? Please send your answers to: Phil Levick, Hollyfield House, 22 Hollyfield Road, Surbiton KT5 9AL. We will refund your postage. Thank you for your help.