HOMECALLHome Visiting Schemes for the Visually Impaired       
Reg.Charity   No. 294901                          throughout   East Sussex

 

Awarded the
Queens Award for
Voluntary Service
2006

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HOMECALL TODAY
What do we do?    

Before they are ‘introduced’ to a client, a visitor undertakes a two-hour training session.
Typically, visitors help their clients by filling in forms; personal shopping; undertaking small household tasks; reading/writing correspondence; finding lost items and taking them on outings.
Each ‘matching’ is monitored closely: visitors are required to submit reports and Coordinators periodically ring or visit clients to review the matching. Visitors are recruited via Volunteer Bureaux, local press publicity and advertisements, parish magazines, postcards in shops and talks. A visitor may be matched with more than one client. Clients are derived from a variety of referral sources – principally, Social Services, other charities for the visually impaired, GP surgeries, other health services, “self”and Age Concern.

Why we do it

Most of our clients are over 85 years of age. Most do not have relatives living nearby and are socially and/or geographically isolated.

Homecall helps them to maintain their independence and stay in their own homes.
Although established originally to benefit blind and partially sighted people – regardless of whether or not they choose to register with Social Services – one unintended social benefit of Homecall’s service has been to relieve the pressure on residential and nursing homes and help to alleviate ‘bed blocking’.

Homecall currently maintains a visitor list of over 330 and a client list of over 400 throughout East Sussex. Our visitors usually visit their clients at least weekly - a total of around 18,000 visits per annum. 46% of our visitors are over 60 years of age.

Because it is known that a significant number of older people prefer not to register as blind or partially-sighted (and therefore do not show up in Social Services statistics), it is difficult to determine the level of unmet demand. However, it is estimated that one in five people will eventually suffer from visual impairment.