To mark International Day of Older Persons, which was on Saturday 1st October, our Sikh Elders Service have shared a blog on the ways they have been supporting and celebrating older people in the Sikh Community in Leeds this year. Last Year’s International Day of Older Persons Each year Sikh Elders Service celebrates IDOP with their service users. Last year the theme was “Linking Lives” and service users joined
Lucy, a support worker in our Self Directed Support Service, has written a day in the life of an SDS worker to give you a flavour of the work they do with clients... Except this was no ordinary day… I have 3 clients booked in on this bright, sunny Wednesday. Meeting with my first client My first stop is with H, a gentle and often worried client who needs
A local network supporting men’s health is celebrating this week having been awarded over £300,000 by the National Lottery, as well as being nominated for a national Project of the Year award. Men’s Health Unlocked (MHU), a partnership between four local charitable bodies (Barca-Leeds, Forum Central, the Orion Partnership and Touchstone) and Leeds City Council, has received two years’ worth of funding from the National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund, to
A few months ago, Arfan was involved in a national roundtable discussion hosted by the Civil Society discussing 'Co-Design' and 'Co-Production' and what these terms mean in reality. See below an excerpt from the article: After this year’s Charity Awards, Charity Finance invited a group of charities whose applications highlighted their commitment to co-production and co-design to share their experiences and learning. Tania Mason listened in. A strong theme that
Mental health problems are common. They affect thousands of people in the UK, and their friends, families, work colleagues, and society in general. In Leeds around 106,000 people experience a common mental health problem, such as anxiety or depression (Leeds in Mind, 2017). Local hospital admissions for self-harm have been increasing for young women over the last 5 years (Young Women’s Mental Health Outcome Based Accountability Report, 2020). In Leeds, men are five
Please help us stop hunger during the Covid-19 crisis by fundraising or making a donation here. Many of the people and families we support are finding it difficult or impossible to get to food banks. They are hungry, isolated and unwell. Your support for Touchstone is never more needed #nevermoreneeded. With a £25 donation, service users who are self isolating and are very vulnerable will have an essential food
November 16-24th is national HIV Testing Week and Touchstone held a testing session with our partners Skyline on 20th November for our BAME service users and staff. Our CEO, Alison Lowe and Operations Director, Arfan Hanif led the way in showing commitment to being tested and the video of their test is here and on all this on our social media platforms. https://youtu.be/MiGc9-bICEk HIV Testing Week seeks to promote
Before coming to Touchstone, I was not unfamiliar with being around individuals living with dementia; my grandfather was diagnosed 5 years ago, and I have seen first-hand how his condition has progressed, and the effects this has had on him and other family members. While my grandparents are regular attendees of the group, I had no idea what to expect! However, I was pleasantly surprised… I was impressed with the
For Yorkshire Day 2019, we interviewed Iby Knill on her experiences and reasons for moving to Yorkshire in the 1960's. "It was 1962. I was employed as Welfare Training Officer by Berkshire County. Then, one day, somebody at County Headquarters thought that it might be an idea to send me to a Home Office Training Course at a god-forsaken place called Easingwold in
Colleagues may have noticed in our offices signage stating ‘Working to become Dementia Friendly’. Something seen across a number of organisations and businesses including on emergency service vehicles. So what does it mean? Does it mean that staff in all organisations/employers who say they are ‘Working to become Dementia Friendly’ are competent to sensitively deal with service users with Dementia or their Carers or family members? If it’s a NO