Derek faces COVID-19 head on
Derek was referred to Kennedy Scott by the Southern Housing Group in November 2019. Prior to this he was a former drug user and attended rehab twice a week. Since then he’s suffered with a number of health issues such as sciatica, dyslexia, headaches and occasionally suffers with blackouts. He was also a hoarder and had reached to the highest level – all of which was impacting on his mental health.
He was allocated an adviser Sunara, who was keen to help him declutter his flat, she explained to him the importance of keeping his flat clean and the benefits it would have on his health and wellbeing. After some persuading Derek agreed to collect two black bin bags of rubbish from his flat each week to reduce the amount of rubbish in his flat. Sunara has also arranged to have his flat deep cleaned when it’s safe to do so and when the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted.
Since the lockdown was announced on 23 March 2020, Sunara has been unable to have her weekly face to face appointments with him and had to look alternative solutions. She arranged with Derek to conduct daily telephone calls with him to have a catch up but also to discuss any concerns he may have.
Due to the COVID-19 virus, Derek began to feel ill and decided to self-isolate to avoid spreading the virus, but this meant that he was having no social interaction or any support network with him living on his own. It wasn’t long before he was running low on essential items and food and was struggling to order an online delivery or get anyone to deliver a food order to him.
Under normal situations Sunara would have accommodated Derek and dropped a food parcel off for him, however due to the lockdown this made it impossible. Sunara had to look at a alternative solution, she decided the best way forward would be to contact local supporting organisations and foodbanks – but there was still the problem of getting the items delivered to Derek’s home. She was finally put in touch with an organisation called SVP who was able to deliver the food to him. Derek was absolutely delighted, as two days later he received his food parcel and his fridge and cupboards were fully stocked.
Derek said: “I’m extremely thankful to Sunara for arranging a food delivery - I can’t thank her enough. When I speak to her it makes me feel a lot happier - she’s very approachable, non-judgemental and most importantly extremely helpful. I would like to thank Sunara for all her and support.”
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