SOAR is part of a citywide initiative led by Sheffield City Council to make Sheffield more dementia friendly. Our Dementia Development Worker, Rosie, is here if you would like to chat to someone, get some 1-2-1 support, share your experiences as a person with dementia or as a carer, or get involved with making your local area more dementia friendly.
Regular telephone support was given to Kym from April to June 2021. She’d been really struggling to get health services to support her mother Sylvia, who has dementia. Sylvia had fallen through the cracks and hadn’t been seen by neurology or had a medication review in 5 years, and had been told that a new referral to neurology could have taken another 12 months. They also hadn’t been informed about some tumours Sylvia had been diagnosed with years previous.
Rosie supported Kym by providing a friendly ear, signposting her to services, and inputting suggestions into Kym’s action plan. She also helped advocate for Kym and Sylvia with health services to encourage a positive outcome.
“Just having someone to talk to and chat things through has given me some great pointers when normally you’d be struggling through on your own... It makes a big difference just having someone else in your corner, when you’re doing it alone you don’t know if you’re doing the right thing... [Rosie] provided reassurance and confidence.”