A Personalised & Free Service
Age UK Teesside works to provide a personalised and free service to help people aged 50+ to improve their lives and their finances. This includes: Money advice, claiming benefits, accessing social care, housing needs, community care and local services.
Our Help & Information Service offers independent information and advice on all issues of concern to older people, their families and carers. We also aim to help people through our various projects such as the Phoenix Project and Better Health, Better Wealth which aim to help older people overcome mental health problems and improve their health and finances respectively.
Case Study
Maureen Tate is 72 years old and lives alone in Stockton. Maureen has crippling arthritis, heart failure, Bronchiectasis and is registered blind. She first contacted Age UK Teesside in 2015 when her husband passed away suddenly. Maureen and her husband had been enjoying retirement together after working hard all their lives, and Maureen stated they ‘lived for each other’. Malcolm had been her main carer so she didn’t know where to turn when he passed away. Maureen said she had never felt so.
Age UK Teesside conducted a Better Health Better Wealth assessment in October 2015. The assessment found that due to Maureen’s decreased mobility and failing eyesight, she could not leave the house unaided. She felt that her health had declined significantly since losing her husband. Although Maureen has two sons, they both work full time and sometimes out of the area, and her friends all moved out of the area a number of years ago. Maureen was consequently put on the befriending list and matched with one of our befrienders (Kathryn) in December 2015.
Kathryn and Maureen both said they hit it off from the word go- the fact that they’re both Game of Thrones fans certainly helped! Kathryn visits Maureen on a weekly basis and they do anything from going food shopping, clothes shopping, to appointments, visiting cafes, to just having a cuppa and a catch up. Maureen said ‘I was a lonely old person. I felt invisible, but now whatever I need, she’s there’. She feels her life has completely changed since Kathryn became her befriender.
Kathryn said befriending is more than just something to put on her CV. She says this role has given her an insight into how difficult life can be. She said she takes things for granted, like being able to open a bottle of milk, which Maureen can’t do. Kathryn feels she can make a difference with little things that she previously hadn’t thought about. Above everything else, Kathryn and Maureen have developed a friendship which they both truly value.
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