Agewell project seeks to help older people

If you are aged 60 years and over, in need of help and assistance, and live in the Ballymena, Larne & Carrickfergus areas then Mid & East Antrim Agewell Partnership (MEAAP) and Good Morning Ballymena have teamed up to meet your needs.

MEAAP, funded by the Big Lottery Fund, offer a range of services to support older people living throughout the Mid & East Antrim area, especially those vulnerable and feeling lonely.

A spokesperson explained: “We work in partnership to support the Good Morning Ballymena & Good Morning East Antrim projects, which provide vital one to one support to older people in terms of a daily phone call and offering a befriending support service to the Good Morning clients for home visits and assistance to do tasks such as hospital appointments or shopping.

“We also support the Citizens Advice Bureau to provide a dedicated older people telephone advice line . The telephone number is 028 2826 2030 (between 10am & 4pm).”

The spokesperson said that a ‘Handyman’ service is also due to be launched in September 2014, offering at risk older people friendly assistance to complete small repairs works to their home, at a discounted charge.

Many more initiatives and projects are being developed to support older people to live happily in their communities.

These will include a pilot Ballymena Food & Friendship project in partnership with the Northern Health & Social Care Trust, whereby volunteers will be partnered with older people suffering from malnutrition to help complete a simple task of their weekly food shopping; supporting the development of six luncheon clubs throughout the three council areas; and most recently to develop an older people timebank to share skills & support funded by Volunteer Now to name a few.

For further information about MEAAP and the associated services offered, please contact Deirdre McCloskey, MEAAP Project Development Officer on 028 2565 8604 / 07712 305 650 or email [email protected]. Or find them on Facebook!