Holly Watson, from Wellow, has signed up for a project to provide support at home to people in rural B&NES. The British Red Cross in Bath and North East Somerset is looking for volunteers to help older people take back control of their lives after a crisis or when facing social isolation.

Volunteer Holly Watson, 22, from Wellow, near Bath, has joined the Red Cross support at home team and wants to encourage others to do the same. The customer services assistant, for a company in Trowbridge, has volunteered for an animal charity and worked in a soup kitchen before and is really excited about her next volunteering challenge – working one-to-one with people in crisis.

Volunteers for the new service, which is funded by Land Rover, provide up to six weeks of support to older people in rural areas of B&NES.

At the start of the project, the focus is on supporting people in the Midsomer

Norton and Radstock areas. During weekly visits to people’s homes, volunteers will help people reconnect with their community, regain their confidence, dignity and independence, and feel more able to face the future.

Holly says: “I used to work in retail, but when I moved to a more nine-to-five customer services job, I found I had a lot of spare time in the evenings and was sitting around watching TV. I thought I could use my time more productively in a way that could make a real difference to someone.

“I saw an advert for this opportunity on Facebook and then came in to meet the team. I’ve done my training in the principles of the Red Cross and in providing practical and emotional support.

“The training was really informative and interactive with lots of group discussion, rather than lots of PowerPoint presentations.

“I learned about how important body language is, especially when supporting people in stressful situations.

“Many of the people I’ll be supporting may have been recently bereaved and very lonely. There will be a huge spectrum of different emotions they’re going through, so we learned how to deal with those in an appropriate manner. We also use a top three goals approach over the six weeks we’re supporting someone – working with them to identify goals they want to achieve. For some people, it might be to play a game of cards each week or learn a new game. Others feel isolated, so their goals may be to catch a bus to the library.

“For them, this might present a huge obstacle, especially if they’ve spent life with a partner and that partner is no longer there.

“I’m really looking forward to meeting my first service user.”

The support is aimed at improving people’s confidence, health and wellbeing and building their social networks, so they are less likely to experience an unnecessary hospital admission or feel the need to visit their GP for a social rather than medical reason.

The programme in B&NES is funded by a national partnership which sees Land Rover UK providing £2 million worth of support to eleven Red Cross projects in rural locations.

If you live in the Midsomer Norton or Radstock area and want to find out about volunteering, call Catherine Robinson on: 0117 301 2604 or email: WAGP&[email protected] For more information about the Red Cross, visit: www.redcross.org.uk