UK: Community Wellbeing Workers / Community Health and Wellbeing Workers

[Andy]

Recently, my local Primary Care Network has launched a "Community Wellbeing initiative" where households in a part of the local area are eligible for support from Community Wellbeing Workers, who will look to visit households once month.

Quoting directly from their correspondance,
"Their role is simply to get to know you and your family, listen to what matters to you, and offer support with a wide range of things. This may include:

Talking with you about anything that matters to you or is causing worry, and helping you think through the next steps.
Helping you find and access services that could support you or your family.
Supporting you to make appointments, complete forms, or get in touch with the right people when you need them.
Keeping you updated about local opportunities, groups and resources that you many not know about."

While in no way a complete solution, it might be that some pwME/CFS might find such help useful. My wife and I have met our local Worker twice now who has come across as very willing to learn about the challenges that pwME/CFS face - obviously though I can't guarantee that will be the case with every Worker.

I'm also not sure how easy it might be to find out if your household is in an area that offers this and are eligible. We received information posted through the door prior to an actual visit but looking online it seems that there is very limited information out there. However, I thought it might be worth posting about it as it might be useful to someone out there.

 

[Kitty]

I live on a small independent living estate (every household has someone who's elderly or disabled), and this sounds a bit like our warden service.

It's very light touch if you don't need help, but if you do she knows the local systems very well. I asked if I could have a "tall" toilet fitted, as I struggle to get up from standard height ones. She got that sorted with a minimum of fuss.