Reducing loneliness at Christmas time

SCA Care a not-for-profit social enterprise, part of Social Care in Action Group, understand that Christmas can be a particularly difficult time for some members of our community. We help and support individuals in their own homes throughout the year, by providing care services, or enabling them to visit people and places in their communities that they would otherwise be unable to attend.

We have invited several of the people we usually support in their own homes to come together this year, to meet others in a similar situation and to have some fun celebrating Christmas in their community.

On Tuesday 12 December our staff will be collecting people that we know would otherwise be stuck at home. We will be providing door to door service to bring them to Oak Lodge where activities and some Christmas food will be provided.

Ricky Rossiter, Head of Community Independence for Social Care in Action Group said: ‘We understand that there are many people across our communities who find Christmas a particularly lonely time of year. We work hard all year to provide opportunities for people to get out and about and to do the things that are meaningful to them. This year, we are bringing people we see individually in their own homes together, to an event that should help them feel less alone at this time of year.’

 Reablement Liaison Co-ordinator, Amelia Hodgson, who helped organise the event said: “This is a really nice event as it’s often the case that some people do not have a Christmas with family or friends, so we thought by bringing them together they will be surrounded by others at this sociable time of year.”

It is estimated that this year over half a million older people will be spending Christmas alone. By hosting a Christmas party we are hoping that we have bought joy and laughter to them over the Christmas period.

ENDS

Further information:

Social Care in Action (SCA) Group is a local not-for-profit group of charitable social enterprises working together to form one of the largest social enterprises on the South Coast of England.

SCA Care is part of the SCA Group of social enterprises. SCA’s other social enterprises provide day care, home care, support services, NHS dentistry, healthy living, wellbeing, counselling, library and community transport on a not-for-profit basis.

Media contact:

For further information, please contact Kay Mitchell on 023 8051 6039, 075 9044 5109 or email kay.mitchell@sciagroup.co.uk.