Last week Verena spent time delivering two training sessions to staff at The Subco Trust.
SubCo offices in Newham
Subco provides support to Asian elders from the Sub-Continent over the age of 55 years, with a particular focus on those who are frail, isolated and house bound. They see approximately 200 users per week, and are one of the largest organisations in the country specifically working for Asian Elders. SubCo are also a Silver Dreams project like us. For more information their blog is http://taskinsubco.wordpress.com/
As a potential strategic and delivery partner in our Silver Dreams application, we are all really excited to be working with them to ensure our project meets the needs of the local community and those of the wider BME communities by making use of their expertise.
Subco works towards the empowerment of elders, assisting them in accessing services they are entitled to whilst campaigning for services they need that are culturally, religiously and linguistically appropriate. Our End of Life Rights Advocacy Service complements the work they are doing by empowering older people to know their rights and choices and assisting those who would like to take up the service.
Participants in the training sessions came from all aspects of Subco’s work – the Dementia Care Services and Advocacy, to Day Care Support.
Staff with their training packs
None of the staff had received training around End of Life Rights before and so it brought up many questions around how best to ensure the individuals they work with are aware of their rights and choices in a sensitive way. It was suggested a gradual approach may work well, allowing the space for individuals to talk if they so wish, and offering support from the project when required. We will be exploring this further with Age UK East London and our other roll-out partners, including the idea that drop in advice sessions could be a great opportunity for the Elders to themselves to ask for more information. Most importantly though, we identifed we would really like to learn from the Elders directly about what they feel is the best way for them to access the project.
Verena and the rest of the ELRA team are therefore really looking forward to working more closely with Subco to ensure that the work we do benefits as many older people as possible across East London!
