People aged 50 or over can now link up to services quicker and easier.
A new scheme called Link Up – has started to bring together all the useful names and numbers of organisations that provide services for people aged 50 or over.
Gateshead’s scheme is part of a nationwide project that aims to help people live independent and active lives by offering a simple guide that they can trust which offers quality services provided by organisations such as the council and Age Concern Gateshead. Other organisations, which are involved, include the Forum for Older People, Anchor Housing, the Gateshead Housing Company, Rowlands Gill Live at Home Scheme, and the Pensions Service.
By consulting the Link up list, you can find out how to stay fit and healthy through salsa classes or tai chi lessons, discover who can help you find your way around the internet, or where to get help with small repairs around the house, such as a broken tap. You can even find out about benefits and pensions advice and who can help you to fill in those forms!
There’s also the chance to make new friends and to get involved with social groups or you can get help with getting a new job or with volunteering.
Cllr Peter Mole, Gateshead Council’s Champion for Older People, said: “You lose contact with friends as you get older and it gets harder to make new ones, being isolated can lead to depression as well as other problems and can actually prevent you from meeting with others. Link Up will help break down these barriers and make it much simpler for older people to access the services they want.�
Link Up is now running in Gateshead, and future developments include working with the Tyne and Wear Fire Authority with their Safety Works Initiative, and setting up a Time Bank in Gateshead to offer new opportunities for volunteering. Similar schemes are in Tower Hamlets in London, Gloucestershire, Devon, Lancaster, Leeds, Nottinghamshire and Salford.
Nationally run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the project has been created with help from older people as well as volunteers, councils and other organisations.
For more information about the scheme and a copy of the current leaflet detailing organisations who can help you, contact Penny Gray on 0191 433 8218.
or go to http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/Care%20and%20Health/Community%20Care/linkup/home.aspx