Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
We’re making care easier
Most of us will at one stage or another need extra care and support to help deal with the challenges life throws at us.
For some, it will be help in our homes as we grow older. For others, it may be more intensive support to cope with mental health issues, a disability, addictions or homelessness.
Whatever you require from your support service, Loretto Care can help you.
Individuals are at the heart of everything we do. Our Health and Well-being staff are dedicated to ensuring each person we support leads independent and fulfilled lives in their homes and communities. Our work is underpinned by compassion, care and respect.
It is delivered in a cost-effective way that gives people the level of support they require and enables them to develop to their full potential.
Support is available with a wide range of activities, from help with personal care, housework, taking medication, going to appointments or managing finances, to keeping up interests and friendships.
It is geared towards building more independence, confidence and resilience.
We can help people with a range of support needs to live in their own homes and to be in control of their support and outcomes.
This allows each person to lead their personalised support service and become active citizens within their community.
“At Loretto, we put people in control of their own lives,” says Sue Johnston, who is one of Loretto Care’s Service Development Leads.
“We design the support around what each person needs and wants, working with each individual to identify what their requirements are and what they want to achieve in life.
“Each support service is developed in partnership with the individual, to ensure the service they receive is flexible and focused on helping them achieve the best outcomes.”
In North Lanarkshire, Loretto Care are helping people grow friendships and put down roots with an innovative community garden at our Community Hub in Wishaw.
It is just one of the ways Loretto Care bring together staff, the people we work for and the wider community in Wishaw.
The Hub is the base for personalised care services provided for people in their homes across North Lanarkshire. It is from there our dedicated teams of Health and Well-being staff work across communities to support people.
The garden, funded by a £4000 grant from Grow Wild Scotland, gives everyone a chance to get outside, enjoy some physical activity, meet new people and develop interests.
Everyone’s individual skills are valued – whether they are painting planters, clearing weeds or planting new seeds.
Robert McCarte is one of the people who is supported by Loretto Care in Wishaw and is a keen member of the gardening club.
The 51-year-old says the personalised support he gets with daily living, such as managing money, housework and getting to social activities, means he can live a more independent and fulfilled life.
The gardening club means he is able to keep up an old interest while making new friends. He said: “It is definitely helping me build my confidence and self-esteem.
“I have always been fascinated by how things grow, so it is good to be able to follow that interest. It gives me something extra to do and the chance to meet different people.”
Joining Wheatley Group, Scotland’s leading housing and care organisation, in 2013 has enabled Loretto to bring much more to their communities than they could before.
One example is the Wheatley Pledge, a scheme which encourages Wheatley’s contractors and suppliers to do more for communities by creating jobs and training places for local people or by carrying out voluntary projects.
Since 2013, more than 200 new job opportunities have been created in this way for people served by Wheatley and partner organisations.
It’s thanks to the Wheatley Pledge that the Community Hub was given large planters for the gardening group and has the services of a landscape architect to assist in the planning of the new community garden.
Back in the Hub, Health and Wellbeing manager Kate Keltie is thrilled to see people blossom along with the garden. She says: “It is wonderful to see the transformation in the people we support which is a result of offering meaningful activity and focusing on individual abilities and strengths.”
Each support service is developed in partnership with the individual