Improving life around the home via the web
Warwickshire Accessible Housing is using ICT to help older and disabled people improve their lives and open access to its services.
The scheme has set up a social networking website to bring customers together and provide access to its housing adaptations scheme. This means residents can communicate online to professionals and other people who have made improvements to their homes to help them live independently.
The Warwickshire Accessible Housing Partnership is a joint initiative between customers, the County, District and Borough Councils, and NHS Warwickshire. It provides adaptations such as ramps, stairlifts or accessible bathrooms, which can transform a person’s life, helping them to live as independently as possible in a safe home environment.
The new website http://www.warwickshireaccessiblehousing.ning.com uses the ning social networking platform to provide essential information and to allow users to interact with each other to create a supportive environment.
Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care at Warwickshire County Council, said: “Housing adaptations bring huge benefits by giving people more freedom in their own homes.
"But before embarking on any changes to the home, customers wanted a way of communicating with each other and the professionals involved. The new Ning network is helping customers connect with each other as well as improving access to our services.”
Twenty-five year-old Neil Hancock, an actor from Stratford, is one of the many people who has benefited from the Warwickshire Accessible Housing Partnership scheme.
Neil is a wheelchair user and, as a result of his disability, his parents were forced to physically carry him upstairs any time he wanted to go to his room. The WAH Partnership were able to adapt Neil’s property so that a bedroom and bathroom was provided and he now has access to the garden.
Neil said the social networking site would have been a valuable resource when he was preparing for the adaptations. He said: "It can be a bit soul destroying to feel that you are on your own and not to know about the different options and variations.
"I realise that everyone’s needs will be different but just having the solace that you can speak to others in the same situation is valuable in itself."
For more information log onto http://www.warwickshireaccessiblehousing.ning.com or telephone 01926 410 410.
If you need improvements and adaptations to your home to help you continue to live independently there, you can ask the social services department of your local council to do an assessment of your home.