Supporting Healthcare

At Community Action Dacorum many of our services have a direct impact on the health of our community in Dacorum.  For other services that impact is indirect.  Together we aim to make a positive difference to the quality of life of residents, whilst supporting our colleagues in primary care and the NHS.

“For too long…we have mistaken NHS policy for healthcare policy. In reality, the care and treatment provided by the NHS…accounts for a relatively small part of each individual’s health and wellbeing……The response to the pandemic brought communities, statutory and voluntary partners together to support people in many inspiring ways”
– Rt Hon. Patricia Hewitt

Supporting our NHS

Our work at Community Action Dacorum overlaps with the NHS so often that we see our local hospitals, PCNs and the ICB as key partners in delivering out wellbeing services.  Using the knowledge gained though our Community members along with data gained from our directly delivered services, we can advise and influence developments and direction that has a positive impact on population health locally.

Our CEO is a nominated member of the Herts and West Essex ICB Voluntary Sector Alliance, representing small charities and CVSs from West Hertfordshire in discussions that impact on local service delivery and social investment.  We also contribute to local co-production boards with West Herts Hospital Trust and work closely with our local Doctor’s surgeries to provide opportunities for community-based health and wellbeing interventions. 

Wellbeing Services

We offer a range of wellbeing services, both preventative and supportive, to meet individual and group needs. These include: 

Community Transport

Our volunteer drivers support hundreds of local residents to attend medical appointments every week, both to their GP surgeries and to hospitals in Dacorum and beyond.  Our volunteers can spend the time with the patients and their carers to make sure they are comfortable and deliver them door-to-door between the appointments. They can even wait with the patients, reducing stress and boredom.  We have a wide range of vehicles available including wheelchair accessible transport that encourages long-term dignified independence for our passengers.  If you know of patients for whom transport is a blocker to accessing healthcare, get them to call us to see if they would quality for community transport support.

Looking at the wider healthcare agenda, we offer low-cost minibus hire to community groups and public bodies for up to 16 passengers. You can choose accessible minibuses on either a self-drive basis or with a volunteer driver.   Groups like The Heather Club work with us to transport their members to day centres and other activities.  If people sometimes struggle to get to your group’s meetings/activities, you could reach more people if transport were not an obstacle, then talk to us.  We take the hassle out of owning and running a minibus safely.

Shopmobility

For people with short or long-term mobility issues, ShopMobility can assist them to access Hemel Hempstead town centre and even can lend them mobility aids.  Our ShopMobility service is based in the Marlowes Centre and provides scooters for hire, as well as having a range of self-propelled wheelchairs. 

The primary aim of the service is to allow people with mobility challenges to access shops in town, often allowing them to shop independently of their carers.  For many, it is an opportunity to be “normal” again.  One daughter told us “thank you for allowing us to be mum and daughter for the day, we could go shopping without me being the carer.” 

We also help those whose mobility is deteriorating to come and try our range of scooters to see what suits them.  With so many different types of scooters available, it can be daunting to choose without trying one out.  We have a range that you can take for a test-drive and decide what works for you. 

Volunteering

Community Action Dacorum run the Dacorum Volunteer Centre and have years of experience to share in recruiting and managing volunteers.  Whether you want to volunteer your time (maybe your company will give you time to volunteer like the ICB), or whether you need to recruit volunteers (perhaps to visit patients) it’s worth talking to us first.

We have provided volunteers to healthcare related programmes across the Borough and can help ensure that the volunteers we find are keen to be involved and suitable for your role.  We provide DBS checking and interviewing services, as well as training you to recruit your own team of volunteers.  Our team will help you to manage your volunteers and can support you to adopt the Hertfordshire 6 Point Promise which is an excellence in volunteering model.

Our team can help with one off requests as well as supporting major incidents and emergencies. During the Covid pandemic, we provided hundreds of volunteers who shepherded patients through the vaccination hubs at Hemel Hospital and Maxted Road.  Our team of volunteers worked with NHS colleagues to vaccinate Dacorum, we even provided drivers to take nurses out for home visits.

We can also place your staff in volunteering roles across Dacorum and within the wider County. If you are encouraging your staff to commit some time to the voluntary sector, get them to contact us.  We have a list of opportunities we can share that will help them to find something that matches their skillset or that just provides them with a moment of joy. If you work with volunteers or you want to volunteer, whether you come from the voluntary healthcare sector or statutory provision, give us a call to discuss how we can support you. You can call us on 01442 247209 or by emailing volunteering@communityactiondacorum.org.uk

Staying Connected

Staying Connected is our Digital Inclusion programme, which is funded by the Herts and West Essex ICB.  The programme gifts redundant IT equipment to people who are digitally excluded.  We ensure they have connectivity and one of our Digital Champions will meet with them to make sure they can use their new equipment.

The project is specifically targeted at people for whom digital exclusion is detrimental to their health.  It supports virtual hospitals and virtual clinics and with some planning our Digital Champions can even support people during the discharge process to make sure they have the equipment and know how to use that before they head home. Any Herts based charity or NHS service can refer a patient to the programme and we will support them from there.  To make a referral call us on 01442 253935 or email cindy@communityactiondacorum.org.uk

Radio Dacorum

At Radio Dacorum our passion goes well beyond the great music we play.  We provide more than just opportunities for residents, charities, and businesses to promote local activities and events. We provide support for individuals as well as providing programming that supports healthcare and wellbeing.

Our Music for Memory show is one example of how we support healthcare through the radio.  The programme is designed to stimulate people living with dementia by playing music from their youth.   The show is especially popular with care homes and we encourage residents to contact us with requests.  We know music is a stimulus and we are told by nurses that this show gets their patients singing along.  We offer these shows, as well as shows that talk about general health issues, and if you have a particular idea for a show, we’re really happy to discuss what it could sound like.

We also work with individuals with severe learning difficulties and ASD to support them to build confidence and improve communications.  By being in an environment like a radio studio, where the individual can control their environment, with the exception of the number of people they are talking to, we have had great success in helping people to build confidence and support their employment prospects.  We can only work with small numbers of candidates at one time, but if you know someone who you think would benefit from this kind of support please to get in touch.

To find out more about Radio Dacorum and how radio can be used to support healthcare and wellbeing, drop us an email at radiodacorum@communityactiondacorum.org.uk, call the radio station on 01442 251200 or just say “stream Radio Dacorum” into your smart speaker.

Delivered Services

Through our trading arm, we offer interpretation and translation services to the NHS and local government bodies across the UK.  Many of the hospitals in the East of England trust our services to professionally interpret sensitive conversations in a way that is both accurate and clear.  With hundreds of languages available for face-to-face or virtual bookings, we offer a fulfilment rate of over 98% of all requests for support.  Our services include BSL interpretation as well as written translations and so together we can provide a holistic package on a one-off or contract basis to suit your requirements.

If you need support being understood, call our team on 01442 867212 or drop us a line at interpreting@communityactiondacorum.org.uk and we will help you to help others.