We recently had a request from a 3rd year medical student to visit us to see what we do.  Of course we invited her along and she visited the Community Care Craft Club, Chairaerobics and the Lunch Club.

Her brief was to identify the link in the community to both Primary and Secondary Health Care. As a lot of our clients are referred to us by the local G.P.’s and one of our main services is to transport people to hospital and doctors appointments, she felt that we were the ideal charity to visit.

We have copied the summary of her report below for your interest.

While visiting CCA I was struck by the importance of providing social interaction for isolated individuals in the community.  I also learned about the ways in which the independence of individuals can be maintained.  This is important as it allows people to live in their own homes and assists any carers.  Therefore the burden on the residential care system is reduced, as well as increasing the qualify of life for the clients.  The range of services provided catered for many groups of people in the community.  The organisation was fairly fluid and so could adapt to fulfil the needs of the community. Many of the volunteers have been helping the organisation for a number of years. This was of benefit to themselves as well as to the clients. For example, most of the volunteers at the lunch club were over seventy years old. They enjoyed helping at the club and had become friends with the other volunteers. They appreciated feeling that they were useful to the community. This demonstrated how voluntary organisations can have a range of benefits to the clients as well as the volunteers.