HLINks - Are you missing out on the Housing LIN weekly update?
Welcome to #Jeremytalks and our must-read weekly bulletin, HLINks, week-ending Friday, 14th May 2021.
This week was #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek and, to coincide, we published a selection of guest blogs on mental health and the impact for older residents in retirement living from Adam Harwood at Central & Cecil, Thor Leaman at Clarion Housing Group and the Mental Health Foundation’s Jolie Goodman. Jolie talked about #MHAW21 and their Standing Together Wales project at this week’s HAPPI Hour alongside Angelina Morgan from Look Ahead and architect, Ekkist’s Ben Channon.
In other news, this week’s Queen’s Speech set out the government’s agenda for the year ahead. It included a commitment that “proposals for social care reform will be brought forward” but did not specifically refer to the long-promised Social Care Green Paper. However, there was mention of the call for integrated care systems in a new health and social care bill and the reform of planning.
You can also take a tour of other news and events on later life housing and independent living with regard to homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, planning matters and more. We feature a range of items that we think will be of interest to you, including the social media day of action from the Housing Made for Everyone Coalition in support of the #ForAccessibleHomes campaign.
And, if you have been joining in our popular HAPPI Hour sessions, they continue next week with a free webinar to coincide with Dementia Awareness Week. Register to listen, watch and hear Care and Repair England, Foundations and the Royal College of Occupational Therapists share their insights into the recent APPG Inquiry report on housing and dementia, especially in relation to retrofitting and adapting our existing homes.
Check all the latest news and register here to keep in touch with all our alerts and other notifications of your choice, sent direct to your inbox. And remember you can also follow us via our Twitter feeds: @HousingLIN, @HousingLINews and @HLINConsult.
Lastly, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted in this week’s issue, share learning about your work and/or discuss how you can engage with our highly regarded consultancy services, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk
You can also listen to #Jeremytalks… here
Stay connected and, above all, with lockdown easing even further, stay safe.
And Eid Mubarak to all who are celebrating.
Jeremy
Housing LIN news item
Mental Health Awareness Week 2021
To coincide we publish a selection of new guest blogs sent in by Housing LIN members.
Sheltered housing residents look to keeping active to avoid isolation and loneliness
The first is from Central & Cecil who share some of the learning from their recent research report on how the organisation addressed the loneliness and isolation experienced by their residents during lockdown. Their key finding was that 38% of residents felt lonely or isolated at least once a month since the first lockdown (in March 2020).
Tackling the mental health pandemic through access to digital services
With a focus on improving mental health and reduce social isolation as a result of the pandemic, the second guest blog by Clarion’s Project & Technical Coordinator features the #meinmind service and how Clarion residents access to the Togetherall UK platform, an online community where members can anonymously support each other and share their problems at any time of day.
The impact of the pandemic on the mental health of people in Later Life Housing and how connecting with nature can be supportive post lockdown
The third guest blog is from the Mental Health Foundation's Jolie Goodman. She highlights the focus of this week's Mental Health Awareness Week and draws attention to the Foundation's Standing Together project with sheltered housing residents in Wales.
Coronavirus Update
With the easing of Covid-19 restriction rules that came into force last month and further relaxations from Monday, check out current the relevant sector guidance on the pandemic on our Coronavirus Info Hub along with a range of Housing LIN practice briefings for the sector and links to other useful information and websites.
And if you missed last month’s launch of the St Monica Trust/Housing LIN RE-COV Study, that ‘state of the nation’ report on COVID-19 and its impact on the retirement village and extra care housing sector, you can now download the presenters’ powerpoints and watch a recording of the HAPPI Hour session below
What else caught our interest
- Dunhill Medical Trust blog: Life in an extra care village during the pandemic: a resident's view
- Age UK report: New analysis finds the pandemic has significantly increased older people’s need for social care
- DHSC guidance: COVID-19: supporting adults with learning disabilities and autistic adults
- Ambition for Ageing: Pandemic Pressures: How Greater Manchester equalities organisations have responded to the needs of older people during the Covid-19 crisis
Do also post any or reply to questions on our discussion forum. It allows you to share information, raise issues and ask questions to solve a tricky issue. For example, can you share your organisation’s COVID-19 risk plan or information about how you are engaging with residents remotely?
Housing, Community, Disability, and Ageing
HoME Coalition – social media day of action
The Housing LIN is proud to be a founding member of the HoME Coalition and to support yesterday’s social media day of action.
In November 2020, Coalition members and supporters came together to respond to the government’s consultation on raising minimum accessibility standards of new homes. Yesterday, we encouraged supporters to spark conversations and show policymakers the difference accessible homes make to people’s lives. If you are on Twitter, check out the hashtag #ForAccessibleHomes. The Coalition also have a shared ResourceSpace with useful infographics and videos that Housing LIN members are welcome to use if helpful.
What else caught our interest?
- Telegraph tongue-in-cheek cartoon: Retirement home for politicians!
- ARCO news item: Social care measures promised in Queen's Speech must unleash potential of housing-with-care
- APPG for the Private Rented Sector news: Meeting on older and disabled renters
- Treehugger (USA) article: Retired Downsizers' Small Apartment Is Renovated For Aging In Place
- The Almshouse Association: CEO blog: May 21
Design, Construction, Planning and Technology
What caught our interest?
- Skills for Care new research: Digital technology and capabilities in adult social care
- LGA new item: Taking the strain with cobots in care
- Innovate UK blog: Social infrastructure: Transforming Construction Challenge
- Centre for Accessible Environments: Shining a Spotlight on Access post COVID-19 with Chris Harrowell
Health and Social Care, Mental Health and Learning Disability
What caught our interest?
- Government Loneliness Action Plan: Emerging Together: the Tackling Loneliness Network Action Plan
- zinc Venture Builder Programme: Get involved in improving the mental health of children and young poeple
- MHA campaign: Fix Care for All
- Centre for Ageing Better blog: We need radical action on social care – not a throwaway line in the Queen’s Speech
- LGA press release: Letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak on adult social care reform
- NCF news: Long-term ambition not a quick fix
- Building Healthy Places factsheets: The Intersection of Community Development and Health
Housing and Dementia
APPG on Housing and Care for Older People Inquiry Report
Did you miss this recent APPG Inquiry report? Watch and listen again to the launch of the new report on housing and dementia here and be inspired by Wendy Mitchell as she shares her personal story about living with dementia.
And remember if you missed last month’s HAPPI Hour session on designing for dementia, the recording and presentations are now available. And the next session on retrofitting our homes for dementia takes place on Thursday next week to coincide with Dementia Awareness Week 2021.
What else caught our interest?
- Innovations in Dementia website: Dementia voices
Scotland
We are pleased that the Housing LIN will be holding its first Scottish HAPPI Hour on Thursday, 27 May 2021. The programme is now live and we are taking bookings
What else caught our interest?
- Scottish Housing News item: We need to build better homes more quickly to tackle Scotland’s housing crisis
And for Scottish government guidance on COVID-19, go to https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance/
Wales
For Welsh government guidance on COVID-19, visit: https://gov.wales/coronavirus
Events
Our Spring HAPPI Hour series is now live
Have we got exciting news for you! Our Spring HAPPI Hour programme is now live and we have some excellent sessions coming up.
Following the launch of the recent APPG Inquiry report on housing and dementia, the second of our two HAPPI Hour sessions with Care and Repair England, Foundations and RCOT is taking place on Thursday next week (as part of Dementia Awareness Week respectively). Register on our events page for further details.
And, if you missed it this week, we have now also announced our June HAPPI Hour programme. They include sessions with NHS England, the LGA and Octavia on the new Anticipatory Care Framework, another with Clarion Group, Southway Housing Trust, South Yorkshire Housing Association and MHA on healthy ageing and strategic approached to housing for older people, and with Tonic Housing, One Housing, Anchor Hanover and the LGBT Foundation on cohousing and extra care housing for older LGBT communities.
In next week’s HLINks
As highlighted above, next week our HAPPI Hour will be addressing housing and dementia as part of Dementia Awareness Week. We will also be reporting on a scoping report by the University of Stirling for Stonewater Housing Association on Assistive Technology and Dementia and an accompanying guest blog about the research. And lastly, we issue a new blog from Tetlow King Planning explaining the proposed Residential Property Developer Tax and the potential impact on retirement housing development.
The Housing LIN would like to thank Willmott Dixon for their support in producing this newsletter.