Driving into the Dean & Chapter industrial estate on the edge of Ferryhill, you wouldn’t expect to find much, writes volunteer community reporter, Mona Schulze.
But tucked between warehouses and recycling centres is a red-brick building with a purple sign on it: Supportive. Inside, a small charity has been quietly filling gaps in care for thirty years that no one else will.
“We’re a charity that enables people to have better access to their local community health provision,” says the CEO Barry Stanley-Wilkinson. In other words: Supportive steps in where the NHS and the social care system no longer reach.
The organisation does so in two main ways: It sends care workers into the homes of more than 300 people across County Durham. And it transports people to GP appointments, outpatient clinics and hospital discharges.
As a contracted partner of the North East Ambulance Service, Supportive can provide both services free of charge. Funding comes through contracts with local authorities and the NHS.
How they got supportive
“There’s not like any real heart-wrenching story of somebody that has gone off and done all of this,” the CEO says, straightforwardly.
The charity was established in the early 1990s as an arm’s-length body of the local authority – a way for the council to commission social care services through a third-sector organisation, saving money while nominally improving provision.
Team Support
When asked what a typical day looks like, he pauses, then offers a single word: “Busy.”
Although working in the healthcare sector can be exhausting, Barry stresses that Supportive is standing on solid ground: “We have a brilliant team. They’re really eager and keen to see the charity grow. Some of the staff have been here for more than 15 years.
“There’s a real dedication to the organisation”, Barry adds.
Supporting a whole community
The impact of the patient transport service is largely invisible to those it does not directly benefit. But it is significant. “It reduces the number of people currently in hospital by us being able to transport them from hospital to home where they’ve been discharged,” explains Barry.
For the communities Supportive serves, that difference is felt in quiet but meaningful ways — from an elderly resident who no longer misses her dialysis appointment to a young man with anxiety who finally makes it to his GP. It keeps people out of hospital, out of crisis, and in their own homes.
That dedication does not go unnoticed. “The surveys that I have seen have been really positive, praising our care staff — saying how good they are, how caring, how attentive,” Barry says.
Looking Ahead
Within the home care service, another shift is under way: increasingly, it is not only older people being supported, but younger adults.
“County Durham has one of the highest numbers of statistics of young people who are currently in care that actually run away from the services that they’re in,” the CEO says.
It is precisely these gaps that Supportive is now looking to fill.
The most immediate plan is a recovery café. Furthermore, they are planning two doctor-led clinics across the county, providing diagnosis, treatment and prescribing support for people with drug and alcohol addiction.
Support groups for families living with addicted relatives, and for those bereaved through addiction, are also in development.
Anyone wishing to get involved with Supportive – whether as a volunteer, a community partner, or simply with ideas – can get in touch by email to info[@]supportive[.]org[.]uk
Mona Schulze
South West Durham News covering news across County Durham.
