August 2023

 Nominee 

August, how on earth did that happen??  We are in the eighth month of this year already, HOW? Im not complaining really, its been another hectic, busy but enjoyable month filled with opportunities for us to show our real energy and worth.   Along with the opportunities comes added frustraitions and the people that work in the local authorities and government really cannot see how we are actually helping them in the long run.  For example, we have more than one stroke survivor who has been paid their benefit entitlement beat PIP personnel independence payment or UC universal credit only to be informed at a later date that they have been overpaid and they are now wanting those funds back, even though the mistake lies with them and through no fault of the stroke survivor.   We are talking more than a tenner here in fact in one of our cases its run into thousands.  I know and appreciate mistakes happen but there has to be some form of accountability here.  We are talking about vulnerable people here and this should not happen.  FULL STOP.     Also , we are finding that its becoming more and more obvious that the Adult social care system is equally as broken as some of the health service.   Again we have come up against Stroke survivors being discharged from hospital and no car plan has been put in place, the stroke patient are having no follow up, no physiotherapy, no speech and language, no occupational health, no Psychology follow up and essentially the patient has been sent home or a care home and left to their own devices.   THIS IS SO SO WRONG.    For example we are helping a stroke patient in their forties who had their 2nd stroke in 2018 and they live with their son, it has become apparent that we have been given incorrect information as the doctors on file, have never heard of this person.   So when speaking to the son regarding an iPad we have loaned them to encourage their communication skills, I mentioned that I could really intervene because the local authority need to have their consent for us to help with anything, bearing in mind that the first time we were involved with this person was 10th July 2023.  The response I got from the son when advising of our predicament was “Oh well, we are seeing the social worker on Tuesday 1st August 2023, so we can give the authority then”. These are just a little snapshots of the daily battles we have to give the stroke survivor hope.   Now I am not saying that we are miracle workers but the quicker we can engage with the patient and their family the quicker we can try and make a difference and bring back some for of normality, whatever normality is.    It is anther example of TIME = BRAIN, yes we all know the FAST analogy when a Stroke strikes but the same could be argued about the rehabilitation and recovery, the quicker we can implement exercise beit brain exercise rather than the physical exercise we can commence the stroke survivor to be a better version of themselves.

Right off my soap box now……A massive warm welcome to our latest employee Matt B, Matt, himself a stroke survivor who is already making a huge difference in what we offer and we dont envisage to stop there, hopefully we can engage more stroke survivors to be part of OUR team.