New Borough-Wide Charity Launches

A new local charity has launched to support vulnerable older people living within Richmond Borough. Embracing Age has been established by Tina English, a trained nurse who previously worked at Age Concern Kingston as a home response coordinator and Age UK Richmond, where she oversaw a project to tackle the social isolation and loneliness of older people in the Borough of Richmond.

 “Through my work I saw that there were gaps that needed to be filled in Richmond Borough that a new charity - drawing on the resources of the faith sector - could make a real difference to,” Tina explains.

 In founding Embracing Age, Tina has two primary aims. “It’s about embracing frail older people with love and practical support, motivated by our Christian faith, and secondly it's about encouraging people to embrace getting older,” she outlined. “The main focus of our first project, funded by Richmond Parish Lands, will be offering friendship and support to older people in care homes.”

Research suggests that older people in nursing homes are twice as likely to feel lonely as older people dwelling in the community.

 “While other local charities offer valuable befriending services to older people in the community, we will look to offer support to older people in care homes by offering friendship and other one to one activities, such as using technology to stay in touch with family and friends, or simply chatting, or reading to someone with visual impairment. The list is endless and will be determined by the needs and desires of individual residents.”

Tina is currently seeking volunteers who will be trained to respond to those individual needs, in liaison with care home staff and relatives. “We want to recruit 40 volunteers in 2015 and be supporting at least 10 nursing homes by the end of the year,” she summarises. “While Embracing Age is a faith-inspired charity, volunteers will offer friendship and support to older people of all faiths and none, and all volunteers will be welcomed provided they have a desire to support older people and are able to be supportive of the ethos of the charity.”

Those interested in volunteering or learning more should visit www.embracingage.org.uk or call 020 3778 0035