NEIGHBOURHOOD CARE
The Good Neighbour Scheme by FIN (Friend In Need) provides neighbourly support and friendship to vulnerable people in East and New Barnet. Our Good Neighbour Scheme “does what it says on the label” in that we do our best to be a “good neighbour” to older people in the East and New Barnet area.With our team of volunteers we provide various services to help older people maintain their independence in their own homes. It’s always worth calling to ask if we can help, or know someone who can. Some of the services we provide are summarized below.We offer:Befriending Emergency shopping Shopping bus Help with gardening and odd jobs Transport to hospital or other services Form filling Falls prevention adviceContact our Good Neighbour Scheme Coordinator for further details. If we are unable to offer the help you need, we work in co-operation with Age Concern Barnet who operate a Handy-Person Scheme (click here to see details)Gardening Scheme
Thanks to funding from London Borough of Barnet, and a team of wonderful volunteer gardeners, we are able to offer some gardening assistance to people who are no longer able to manage the garden themselves, have no family or friends to help, and cannot afford to pay a gardener. We can only promise one visit a year, although the aim is to provide up to 3 [totalling a maximum of 7 hours], weather and gardener availability permitting. To partially cover our costs, we charge £12 per hour for this service.
Transport
For those older people whose mobility problems mean they cannot use public transport, but who can get in and out of a normal car, we have a small but dedicated team of volunteer car drivers who will provide transport to and from doctor, dentist and hospital appointments and the like. In most cases, he volunteer will wait with the client and drive them home. We pay our volunteers’ mileage expenses, so ask for a donation to cover this. For trips to local hospitals there is a set charge. For wheelchair accessible vehicle hire, contact our Transport Department.
Shopping Bus
For those of us able to pop down to the local supermarket at a moment’s notice, it’s easy to forget that for some older people, that’s just not an option – and there may be no friends or family close by to help. For people in that position who are still mobile enough to manage the steps of a minibus, and to push a trolley unaided around a large supermarket, we run 2 fortnightly shopping buses to Asda in Southgate. The buses run on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month and the 2nd and 4th Tuesday – excluding bank holidays. There is a charge for this service, currently £4. Clients are picked up from their homes between noon and 1 p.m., shop from 1-2 p.m. and we aim to have them home by 3 p.m.
Befriending
If someone is unable to get out and about as they did in their younger days, and has no friends or family nearby, getting older can be a very isolating experience. A friendly face, visiting every week or fortnight for about an hour, can make a very big difference in a lonely person’s life. The one-to-one relationship that our volunteer befrienders develop with the client is a rewarding experience for both parties.
Fall Prevention
A fall which results in serious injury such as a broken hip, can drastically reduce an older person’s ability to maintain their independence. Our Good Neighbour Scheme Co-ordinator is trained to carry out Falls Risk Assessments in the home and to advise on how best to avoid falls. She’s also happy to come and give talks on home safety to pensioners groups, day centres, church groups, etc.
