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April/May 2020 Issue 69 Dear Coalition Member, First and foremost, I hope that you are safe and well. It seems impossible to articulate what a terribly difficult and worrying time this is for everyone. You will have noticed the details of Surrey community helpline on our front page, I encourage you to get in touch with the helpline team if you need support with food, prescription collection or have another (non-medical) concern. As you will know, four weeks ago we made the decision to change all our face-to-face events, meetings and forums to happen virtually instead of in-person. We gave members the option of joining these using video conference, telephone, SMS text relay or email relay. Board Members recognised that human connection is more important now than ever before, and they approved an idea for us to create two new social activities – our weekly virtual café and our daily walk and talk. Both are open to the whole community and are an opportunity to see a friendly face or to hear a friendly voice and participate in some light hearted chat. Alongside these new activities, we have run all our usual meetings, you can read more about these on Over 436 people have joined our virtual activities over the last 4 weeks – what an incredible number! I am so proud of our staff, board, volunteers and members for showing such innovative spirit and determination during such a difficult time. Many of our members have had a one-to-one support session to help them to access video conferencing for the first time, others have used the self-help guide to get them get started I have spoken to a number of you about Kamran Mallick of DRUK raised this with Justin Tomlinson MP and you can read the reply from Justin here: . Locally, Surrey County Council have reassured us that they will do all they can to avoid having to make any easements and have explained that there is a defined process that they need to follow should this become necessary. Aside from legislative changes, the main concerns we have been hearing from our members over the last month include: difficulty in securing on-line shopping slots (for those members who are not in the shielded category and therefore not on the priority list some supermarkets are using to allocate these), increased feelings of anxiety and depression, concern about PPE (personal protective equipment) for PAs and worry regarding fears over treatment and triaging for disabled people with Coronavirus. On the last point, please see the letter from the National Medical Director and Chief Nursing Officer for NHS England in response to an open letter from DRUK which the Coalition signed: . Concerns were also raised about access to the community helpline, this was quickly resolved by Surrey County Council and the contact options are on our front page. You can help us to highlight issues affecting you at this time by completing our survey: or by contacting the team for support with completing this. I would like to close by taking this opportunity to send the biggest ‘thank you’ to all the key workers and volunteers that are working so hard to support us all: the NHS frontline professionals, the social care teams, PAs, other care workers, third sector staff, supermarket workers and delivery drivers, cleaners – the list could go on and on. If there is anything we can do to support you, please get in touch – we are here to help. All my best wishes, Clare ‘Over to you’ Members who have joined our virtual café over the last few weeks have shared a wide variety of activities they have been doing during this time of social distancing and isolation and some top tips for coping. We have compiled some of these for you below. If you would like to contribute any top tips or activity ideas then please get in touch! Food and treats Contact your local corner shop to see if they can deliver, a member shared that they had really good success with this. Order with your local farm shop, this is a bit more expensive but they don’t seem to have had the stock difficulties the supermarkets are experiencing. One member is also having good success purchasing ready meals from Wiltshire Farm Foods and they are taking on new customers. & Spencer?(M&S) have launched volunteer shopping cards to enable elderly, vulnerable and self-isolating people to have their shopping collected by volunteers safely and securely. The initiative means that transactions can be made by a volunteer on behalf of someone else without the need for cash or bank cards to be exchanged. This reduces the risk of infection occurring between the parties as well removing?opportunities for fraud. For both Asda and M&S, the e-card can be brought online and loaded with as much money as the purchaser wants. It can then either be emailed to the volunteer or printed out and left in a safe location for them to collect. The card can then be used contactlessly in store using a barcode, before finally, the volunteer can leave the shopping in a safe location to be collected by the purchaser.Staying busy Reading – if you like science fiction Orson Scott Card books were recommendedIf you enjoy singing you can join in with the Rock Choir on Facebook at 3.00 pm every day #keepBritainSinging National Theatre are showing free performances a particular recommendation is for One Man Two Guvnors which can be found here using audible Intelligence series on YouTubeTales from the loop series on Amazon PrimeFuture learn have a variety of free courses on offer baking is available with the Bread Ahead Bakery on InstagramStaying connected A few members have recommended the Houseparty app –this is similar to zoom where you can have multiple participants This can be used for chats, virtual dinner parties, book groups and as recommended in the café for an online quiz or the quickest person to tie their shoelaces. Others have raised caution about the permissions you have to give when you install the app so do make sure you read the security statement and consider this. Surrey community helpline In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, Surrey County Council has set up a community helpline and webpages. The community helpline is there to help direct residents who need support, such as picking up shopping, prescription collections or having someone who can be a telephone friend, to services who can help and to provide advice on how people can volunteer to help the community. Please contact the community helpline using the following details: Telephone: 0800 200 1008 (Monday to Friday 8.00 am – 6.00 pm) SMS text: 0786 0053 465 (Monday to Friday 9.0 0am – 5.00 pm) Textphone (via text relay): 18001 0300 200 1008 and the British Sign Language Video Relay service during the hours 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday and 10.00 am to 2.00 pm at the weekends which you can access here: : For medical help and advice For the latest medical advice and to use an online symptom checker, please go to . For urgent medical advice please contact NHS 111 or 999 in an emergency. Self-isolatingWe must self-isolate at home for 7 days if we have a temperature or a new, continuous cough. If a member of our household begins to show these symptoms, we must self-isolate for 14 days. Social distancingAt of 10th April 2020, the government guidance is that we all need to stay at home. We should only go outside for essential food, health reasons, exercise once per day or work (but only if you cannot work from home). If we go out, we need to stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people at all times and we should wash our hands as soon as we get home. We should not meet with people outside of our household -even friends and family. Shielding Some members with some specific underlying health conditions that would make them ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ to Coronavirus have received a letter or text message from the NHS advising that we need to be shielded by remaining inside at all times for the next 12 weeks and minimising contact with other members of the household. If you have not been contacted but think that you should have been, please register here: SILC (Surrey Independent Living Council) are operating as usual during this time. Contact by phone on 01483 458 111, by SMS Text on 07919 418 099 or by email admin@.uk. SILC have produced some fantastic resources for employers and PAs to use during the Coronavirus pandemic. You can check out the fast fact sheets here: . Member reports Our Let’s Hear Surrey team have provided us with a write-up of their latest action day. Let’s Hear Surrey group action day - January 2020 in Epsom, Surrey We have divided this report up into two parts: part one covers our most recent group visit and the experience we all had, part two covers the outcomes following our visit and follow-up actions. The Let’s Hear group (formerly Let’s Loop Surrey) met in Epsom in January for our first action day of the year! The 7 of us were looking forward to a day of checking loops, raising awareness and chatting over a coffee and cake break! We started our visit full of hope in the Ashley Centre and Waitrose was our first stop. There was no loop at the Customer Service desk or on the tills but the assistant we asked did know what cupboard to look in! Once switched on the loop worked and we were able to take the opportunity to explain why the loop should be out on the customer service desk and that at least one or two of the tills should have a loop fitted. The next stop was Halifax, the group were very impressed by the very clear signage which boded very well for our loop check. However, when we explained why we were there we were asked to come back later because the only member of staff that knew how to use the loop was busy. One member of the group who is a Halifax customer tried to carry out a transaction but received no loop signal. We were disappointed, it’s essential that those with a hearing impairment can carry out transactions, confidentially and securely.We decided to move on and check out the Next shop. Next had a loop system in place. The staff were very helpful when we pointed out that the reception was not as good as it could be. The team agreed to follow up the sound issues with engineers. With our young and fashion-forward members in mind, we visited New Look. Signage for the loop system was great but when we got to the till knowledge of what a hearing loop is was non-existent and we couldn’t find the hearing loop despite crawling around the floor behind the till. The manager was new and was honest about her lack of knowledge.The group then split in two with some of us testing the loop at the Pharmacy in Boots; it had to be dusted off but the signal was good! The others went into House of Fraser. There was a lot of signage for loop systems in various places but after failing to detect a signal the group was informed that when the new owner (Sports Direct) took over, the tills were replaced but the hearing loops were not! One member visited the EE phone store – the loops were working but again the sound could be improved; we left with a promise that this would be taken forward.We all felt like it was time for a pit stop and decided to head to Costa – to spend the voucher we received following our visit to the Leatherhead branch. On the way there we were waylaid by a member of the Ashley Centre Security staff demanding to know what we were doing and to inform us that as we were on private property, we were unable to continue to take photos! It was only when we were drinking our free lattes and macchiatos that we were able to see the funny side of this. Nearly being thrown out of a shopping centre was a first (and hopefully a last) for us! The service in Costa was excellent – they even went the extra mile and offered us table service. Thankfully the loop in Costa was working. Refuelled and reinvigorated we went along to M&S next. There was no signage outside the store but plenty within indicating there was loops galore. We decided to split up with each of us testing a different loop. We waited for what seemed like an age to test the loop at the customer collection point – when we finally got to the front of the queue we were disappointed as there was no loop signal at all and despite assistance from two members of staff none could be found. We decided to join the rest of the group upstairs who were experiencing the same issues as we were. Although we could not fault the helpfulness of the staff, we were all disappointed that a store as big as M&S did not have one working loop system.Fatigue was setting in towards the end of the day but we decided to make one last visit to Metro Bank. The staff were very helpful, there was a loop system on one counter but there was no signage to highlight this. After I had recovered from the rigours of the day and our brush with the Ashley Centre Law, I began writing to the Chief Executives of those businesses which fell below our expectations. We have now started to receive responses and have some positive news to feed back to you. We have listed the outcomes (and in-progress work) below: - Outcomes from our post-visit communications: - New Look have said they will be embarking on nationwide refresher training for staff on the importance of hearing loops thanks to our group raising this issue with them! Halifax have issued an apology and assured us that the loop failure has been investigated and is now working. They made a donation of ?100.00 to be put towards refreshments on future Let’s Hear visits. M&S initially came back to us with an inadequate response – this is still being progressed and we will update you in due course. We would like assurance from M&S that all loops have been fixed – we don’t want to hear that they ‘will be’, that is simply not good enough. House of Fraser (now owned by Sports Direct) have been in touch to acknowledge that the loops had been removed, to reassure us that this was an oversight rather than an intentional move and to assure us that they are now back in their rightful place and operational. They have asked us about some future training that they would like the group to be a part of. The value of the awareness raising element to our visits cannot be under estimated, as detailed above, our local action has resulted in action which has a national impact. It’s hard work and we may pick up a bit of a reputation with overzealous security guards of Surrey from shopping centres that do not appreciate our presence but we will make the shopping experience better for people with a hearing impairment, not only in Surrey but the whole country! Thank you to all our wonderful Let’s Hear members – if you would like to join the group, we would love to have you! We are always looking for people with a Hearing Impairment and that use a Hearing Aid to become loop checkers as well as people to act as group members/buddies. For more information please contact me (Yasmin) by email Yasmin.Broome@.uk, by SMS text or phone on 0745 5267424. If you have any thoughts on where our ‘crack-squad’ should go next then please let us know. Technology As you would have read earlier on, lots of you have been joining in with our virtual activities and those of other organisations. If you are struggling to get started then please let us know – we want to enable as many people as possible to join us and to stay connected during this time. As we have covered in previous editions of Coalition News, we have been working on designing a project with Action for Carers Surrey for the East Surrey area. This project aims to see how technology (and specifically virtual activity/interest groups) can have an impact on feelings of loneliness for people who are disabled and carers. In light of the Coronavirus pandemic, Surrey Heartlands has worked together to see how parts of this project – including a central ‘portal’ which pulls together a programme of all the virtual activity groups from different providers (including Community Connections as the lead providers) – can be launched across the whole of Surrey as soon as possible. The launch date for this portal is the 1st of May so watch this space. In the meantime, we have recruited for the Project Manager post for East Surrey and I am trilled to announce that Peter Dommett is about to join our team. Peter has just retired from a career in the Police. We will introduce Peter in a little more detail in our next edition. We are really grateful to the Community Foundation for Surrey for awarding us some funding from their Coronavirus response fund so that we can supply a smartphone or phablet (a tablet with a data sim card in it) to any of our members that do not have their own. This would be on a long-term loan basis. Please get in touch to register your interest. #StayInWorkOut This edition we are highlighting how you can stay active at home which may be of use for those shielding, those self-isolating (but well enough to be active) and for those who prefer to get active indoors. Active Surrey have built a dedicated page on their website to help to get (and stay!) active at home, you can find this here: ? The Activity alliance have a whole range of ideas to help you which you can check out here: brilliant team at YMCA East Surrey have some activity videos on their you Tube channel, including Zumba, find out more here: . You could also try any of the below options: Parasport have some home workout videos on their website which you can check out here: Synergy Dance has set up a virtual platform for audio yoga/meditation for the visually impaired - which is free of charge. You can access it here: Synergy team will keep adding to these, the next portal will be for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and will also be free.?Royal Dance Academy teacher and Silver Swans practitioner Sarah Platt will be bringing a series of ballet exercises aimed at the over 55s every Wednesday from 1.00 pm. See to find out more.The NHS has put together some suggestions for seated exercise. They point out that sitting exercises are a great way to improve mobility and prevent falls and can be done at home. See 5 Sports Extra on DAB (and Freeview ) are broadcasting daily 10 minute ’10Today’ exercise sessions from 5.00 am -10.00 am, with Surrey instructor Terry Keen who you may have met at our 2019 Conference. You can find out more hereFancy trying some Adaptive Yoga with Wheelpower? Yoga is a safe and effective way to increase strength, flexibility and your balance that can lead to improvements in both your physical and mental wellbeing. WheelPower believe that lives can be transformed through sport and physical activity and have launched a series of Adaptive Yoga videos to encourage wheelchair users to exercise from the comfort of their homes: Blind Sport have partnered with inclusive deliverers to bring you accessible workouts which you can do from the comfort of your own home! Visit If you also have a Mental Health or emotional wellbeing need, you could also check out what’s on offer from the Community Connections providers in Surrey. Find out more here .Finally, you can join our fun and informal ‘walk and talk’ which is on every weekday at 2.30 pm. Find out more here xxx. As one member told us on twitter last week “it was so fun with a nice group of people. Thanks for brightening up my day”. Share your story – we want to use your experience to help others. If you have tried one of the above options (or anything else!) and would be willing to share how you #StayInWorkOut with others then please let us know! Mental Health Coping with increased isolationWith around 1.5 million people in England ‘shielding’ at home for 12 weeks, and the rest of the population following the social distancing guidelines, there is unprecedented levels of isolation. Isolation can lead to increased feelings of loneliness and can also impact on our mental health and/or emotional wellbeing. In her latest blog, Hannah Deakin reflects on the challenges of being isolated and highlights that ‘isolation is something that disabled people, or those with chronic illnesses experience a lot. Our norm’. Hannah has drawn on her own experience of isolation to share some tips with those who are not used to it and/or struggling. Two of Hannah’s tips are: ‘Establish a routine?I have found trying to get into some sort of routine is helpful, even with a large degree of flexibility! In addition, do something positive every day, even if it is small.Keep yourself busyMaybe consider starting a project or restarting a hobby. When I was in hospital I enjoyed painting and arts and craft. Currently, I enjoy making greetings cards, which I make in aid of Starlight Childrens Foundation’ We would encourage you to check out her complete blog here: are you coping? Have you got tips to share? Please get in touch with us (see contact details on page ) so that we can pass on your pearls of wisdom to help others, we would really like to be able to put a guide together. We would also like to be able to showcase any projects you are working on at home – be it some planting, a painting, poetry or anything else you would like to share. Stay connectedStaying socially connected whilst we are socially distanced is really important to protect and maintain our mental health and emotional wellbeing. Do consider joining our social virtual café, one of our ‘walk and talk’ sessions or one of our meetings or forums – see page for details. Community Connections The Community Connections providers are still operating – albeit in a different way! It is worth checking out their activity to see if there is something that you might like to join in with. You can find out more here: Mental Health Crisis support Safe Havens – still open for people in crisis, more information here SABP Crisis line and text 0800 915 4644, or SMS text to 07717 989 024, more information here Samaritans – phone free at any time 116 123 or by email jo@ Shout – a 24/7 text free service on all major mobile networks, for anyone in crisis anytime and anywhere. Text the service on 85258Domestic Abuse At this time when we are being urged to stay home, we are aware that sadly, for some of us, home isn’t always a safe place to be. If you are in immediate danger, please contact 999. If you need help but can’t say anything you can dial 999 and press ‘55’ once connected. Be aware that if you are using a mobile phone your location can’t be traced (but if you are using a landline then it can be). If you are experiencing domestic abuse you can get support and advice from local support organisations, the best place to find out more about what’s available is on the Healthy Surrey website which you can access here: . One example of what’s available in Surrey is Your Sanctuary who run a helpline which is open from 9.00 am to 9.00 pm offering listening support, information and signposting. Your Sanctuary also runs two safe houses for women and children and a specialist male support service for men across Surrey. Carer support Carers are facing an extremely challenging time and we know that, for many of you, usual respite arrangements may have broken down during the Coronavirus pandemic. Action for Carers Surrey are available for you to contact for support and advice. The Carer Information Centre (CIC) is there for you. You can email?CarerSupport@.uk?or?call on 0303 040 1234. You can also send an SMS text to 07714 075993. The Service is open 9.00 am-5.00 pm on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, and 9.00 am – 6.00 pm Tuesdays and Wednesdays.Get involved – by passing on your thoughts about Mental Health Crisis support at this time – would you visit a Safe Haven? Please complete our survey to assist providers and commissioners: Fundraising update Thank you to the Community Foundation for Surrey for awarding us funding from their Coronavirus response fund. We will use the funding to purchase phablets to lend to members with no device to enable them to get (and stay!) connected. Thank you to the generous donors that contributed to the fund which is doing so much good across the county. Thank you to Toyota Fund for a Better Tomorrow who have donated towards the young people’s nightclub project that we mentioned in our last edition. Clearly this particular project is on hold until we can all get out and about again but it is wonderful to know that we have the funding in place and are ready to go! Fingers crossed!We are awaiting a decision from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) on a grant application we have made to them to help us with some of the unexpected costs that came about as a result of Coronavirus. Donate a device! We are keen to see if the private sector can help by contributing devices to allow us to get more of our members connected. If you have any contacts that you think may be able to help then please let me know! Dates for your diary Our virtual walk and talk is 2.30pm – 3.00pm every week day. It is open to the whole community and is an opportunity for you to see a friendly face, have a chat and be active at home in whatever way suits you. Please let us know if you would like to join and we will send you the joining link. If you would like to see the below list in calendar format, you can visit our website events page here: (). For information about how to use Zoom conferencing for the first time and our guidelines for our virtual groups, please see here (insert link to website guide). If you would like some help, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us and we can book a support session. For the link to join any of our meetings or events, please just get in touch.Date Name of meeting or group TimeContact01/04South West FoCUS1pm – 2pmJane06/04 Virtual Café 11am – 12 noon Yasmin06/04 East and Mid FoCUS 1pm – 2pm Jane09/04 West FoCUS 1pm – 2pm Jane14/04 North West FoCUS 1pm – 2pm Jane15/04 Surrey Coalition Board catch-up 10.30am 11.30am Clare20/04 Virtual Café 11am – 12 noon Yasmin21/04 IMHN lunch and learn 12 noon – 1pm Guy23/04 Surrey Vision Action Group 10.15am 11.30am Yasmin27/04 Virtual Café 11am – 12 noon Yasmin28/04 IMHN Reps catch-up 11am – 12 noon Guy30/04 DENS Chairs 10.30am 11.30am YasminMay 202004/05 Virtual Café 11am – 12 noon Yasmin04/05 Mid DENS group 1pm – 2pm Yasmin11/05 Virtual Café 11am – 12 noon Yasmin11/05 North DENS group 1pm – 2pm Yasmin12/05 Long Term Neurological Conditions Group 10.30am – 11.30am Yasmin13/05 South West DENS group 10.30am – 11.30am Yasmin18/05 Virtual Café 11am – 12 noon Yasmin18/05 East DENS group 1pm – 2pm Yasmin20/05Surrey Coalition Board Meeting 10.30am – 11.30am Clare22/05IMHN Coordinating Group meeting10.30am – 11.30am Guy25/05Virtual Café11am – 12 noon?Key:IMHN = Independent Mental Health NetworkDENS = Disability Empowerment NetworkFoCUS = Forum of Carers and people who Use our Services (this is a forum for people who use, or have used, or care for someone who has used, services from Surrey and Borders NHS Partnership Trust. Contact us Please contact the office with any queries and we will do our best to help you. Our contact details are: 01483 456 558 or SMS text 07563 997 932 or email info@.uk. Please do not attend our office as staff are working from home only until further notice. If your query is about DENS (the Disability Empowerment Network Surrey), one of our Special Interest Groups, the IMHN (Independent Mental Health Network) or FoCUS (Surrey and Borders NHS Partnership Trust’s Forum of Carers and people who Use Services), please use the contact details below. 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