The British Red Cross The British Red Cross has delivered health and social care services since the NHS was established. We work with commissioners to provide valuable time-limited support to vulnerable people across the UK. The Red Cross offers person-centred support for adults of all ages. The combination of services we provide can be tailored to meet specific commissioner and health community needs. We have local teams of highly committed staff and volunteers. They offer quality services that are delivered within our Quality Standards Frameworks to ensure we are supporting people in the best way possible The services we provide To help people remain independent or to provide practical and emotional support to people in need, we provide the following services: You can find further details of how to access each service here: https://www.redcross.org.uk/get-help Emotional support Mobility aids services Refugee services Help at home Financial support Help to find missing family The British Red Cross Mobility Aids Service has adopted a new model that delivers wheelchairs directly to you and we are no longer able to offer commodes as part of our service and it now covers most of the UK (excluding the Hampshire, Norfolk & Waveney, and Northern Ireland, where local Mobility Aid Services are in place). This model allows us to reach more areas of the UK, including reintroducing our service to Scotland Helping people home from hospital We help patients get home safely, quickly and effectively through our assisted discharge services. For the first 72 hours after leaving hospital, we make sure people have everything they need at home. If they need more support, we provide personalised help for the next six to twelve weeks. Reconnecting people with their community Chronic loneliness and isolation can have a serious impact on health and wellbeing. Our research has shown that before the coronavirus pandemic, one in four people in the UK often or always felt lonely. Since lockdown, 41 per cent of UK adults report feeling lonelier. Loneliness can be as bad for you as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and is likely to increase your risk of death by 29 per cent. The British Red Cross recognise we have a role to play in tackling this. We work with local authorities and other organisations to develop and deliver loneliness services alongside other health and wellbeing services such as our support at home services. Through strong corporate partnership with the likes of Land Rover, we provide staff and volunteers with the resources they need to reach people some of the most isolated rural and remote communities across the UK. This gives people the practical help and emotional support they need before, during and after a crisis. Find your local support at home service If you would like help at home, we usually need a referral from your GP or another professional. To find out more or get help with loneliness, contact our team in your area. 01235 552 665 ilcrsouthciadmin@redcross.org.uk Supporting patients in A&E In more than 20 A&E departments across the UK, we partner with hospitals to provide practical and emotional support to patients and families. Focusing on issues outside of medical needs, we also help people get home when they don’t need a hospital bed or treatment. Supporting the ambulance services We provide ambulance services under contract, primarily with the NHS. We offer services at three levels: patient transport urgent patient transport blue light emergency response. We also provide ambulance services under a Royal Charter during surges in demand, predicted periods of high activity or adverse weather events. Working closely with commissioners, we help reduce trips to A&E departments and provide supported-discharge services. Hiring and loaning wheelchairs and commodes We hire and loan wheelchairs and commodes to people who need them for a limited time to live independently. This can be part of a stand-alone service or an integrated package. As the biggest lender of wheelchairs in the UK, we can offer commissioners a contracted-out community equipment service. Transport for healthcare visits We provide transport as part of an integrated offer or as a stand-alone service for people who need it due to illness, disability or injury. Our support helps people reach medical and other essential care appointments, and we can use specially adapted vehicles when necessary. Providing first aid education If injured people received basic first aid before emergency services arrive, up to 59 per cent of pre-hospital deaths could be prevented. These are the findings from our research and the reason we teach first aid to adults and young people. We also focus on training people who are at a higher risk of experiencing a first aid emergency. We're sorry but <%= htmlWebpackPlugin.options.title %> doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled. Please enable it to continue.
