New INS Groups and Services... Support Group for Hounslow Carers launched… Memory Strategies 4-week course… Respite at Home pilot… “Happiness is Gardening”
Elizabeth Banks, President of the Royal Horticultural Society, is giving a talk in support of INS on Wednesday, 25 April – learn more at “Happiness is Gardening”
New INS Groups and Services
A new Mutual Support Group for Carers living in Hounslow was launched in January 2012. We are piloting a new Respite at Home service from 2 February 2012 and introducing a monthly benefits advisory surgery for carers on 21 February 2012. More information on these three new services and other INS support for Carers can be found in Carers’ News. A new 4-week course, Memory Strategies, started on 26 January. A 12-week Living Well programme for people recovering from a stroke has been developed – the first session started in July 2011. A senior INS physiotherapist is delivering a stroke education programme for staff in local nursing homes. A 6-week programme of Yoga for clients and carers on Thursday afternoons began in November 2011 and is likely to be repeated in 2012. Demand for Fit Club continues to grow: there are two sessions every Friday for clients and a weekly Fit Club for Carers on Wednesdays.
INS/Homelink Day Service
INS and Homelink are working in collaboration on a new and exciting pilot project providing a neuro specific day of respite, therapies support, and activity. Our project is in Homelink’s premises at St Augustine’s Church, Whitton from 10am – 3.30pm on Tuesdays.
We have appointed Carol Hall to support this initiative and are pleased to say that the new service commenced on schedule in October 2011. A Mutual Support Group for the carers supported through this project has also been formed and meets monthly.
To learn more about Homelink, please see www.homelinkdaycare.co.uk
The Rotary Club presented a Charity Golf Tournament and Dinner at Stockley Park Golf Club on Thursday, 29 September in aid of INS.
Garden Party on Monday, 30 May Visitors came to admire a beautiful private garden in Kew and enjoyed tea and delicious home-baked cakes. There were plants for sale and a raffle. Over £2,000 was raised for INS. Read more at Open Garden in Kew.
Open Day on Wednesday, 4 May INS trustees, staff and volunteers were delighted to welcome so many friends, supporters, fellow healthcare workers, community organisations and clients to 82 Hampton Road. Thank you to everyone who came to learn more about INS and see the enhancements to our facilities and equipment. Read more at Open Day on 4 May.
Building work at 82 Hampton Road 
Fantastic news – we now have level access throughout the building, a cafe style reception/meeting area and a fully adapted garden as well as a new boiler and more storage space, thanks to a grant award from the Social Enterprise Investment Fund. The objective of SEIF awards to charities to improve their facilities is to enable charities to bid to provide services on an equal footing with the public sector.
The builders completed the work on time - one of the conditions of the grant – so we breathed a sigh of relief and moved on to the finishing touches!
The garden has been transformed and now has raised beds at different levels, new paving and re-laid turf. Planting of the raised beds was completed in May, led by a team of volunteers from Cisco.
