Betty gets dressed and goes out for the first time in years
Betty is an 88-year-old lady who lives alone and is supported by a care package and outreach support. Outreach have been supporting Betty since October 2021 and in November 2021 Betty sent a written complimentary letter to say thank you and let us know how outreach support had changed her life
Since Betty’s husband passed away, Betty has become more isolated and has no immediate family or friends that visit her. Betty has carers who support her 4 times a day with medication preparing meals and drinks and also do Betty's weekly shop. Over the years Betty has collected a lot of ornaments which are her pride and joy but took up most of the space in her living room.
From this we identified that Betty would benefit from a safe and well-being check which was carried out by the fire service. An appointment was arranged with the outreach service so that we could support their visit. The Fire service identified that Betty was not able to hear smoke alarms that were fitted in her home, so they changed them to visual alarms.
In August whilst supporting Betty she talked about how wonderful it would be to be able to go outdoors as she had not been outdoors for a couple of years apart from going into her garden. Betty would spend every day in her nightwear as she said she felt there was no point in her getting dressed as she wasn’t going out anywhere.
We asked Betty if she had got a wheelchair, but she had not. We contacted her GP to explain the situation and asked if he could refer her for a wheelchair assessment which he agreed to.
Betty’s GP informed us that he would need to speak to Betty to complete an assessment over the telephone for him to make a referral to wheelchair services, we agreed that our outreach supporter would be able to support Betty with this call. Betty had a wheelchair delivered to her home in January 2023.
On Monday 6 March it was a lovely day, and our outreach support worker asked Betty if she would like to be taken out in her wheelchair, Betty said she would love to and asked the support worker to pick her some clothes out to wear but said she wasn’t sure if her clothes would still fit her as she had not worn them for so long, Betty was assisted to get dressed. Betty was taken out and Betty expressed that she absolutely enjoyed it.
Betty was absolutely over the moon, and I think the look on her face says it all l J What a great service Outreach is and the difference it makes to people’s lives.
Letter from Betty 14 March 2023