Our Purpose
Promoting and protecting the welfare and wellbeing of older people.
What we Hope to Achieve
For local people, communities and organisations to know they can rely on Search for high quality services that are accessible, inclusive, and responsive to their needs
How we Work
The primary aim of Search is to promote the health and welfare of older people. We have identified that a substantial number of older people living in Newcastle, particularly those living in the west end, are struggling with low incomes, poor health and problems in understanding and engaging with the systems and processes that should enable them to improve their lives.
Poverty, poor physical and mental health, caring responsibilities and poor educational attainment, leading to literacy and numeracy problems, are common amongst the older people who need our services. We provide advice, advocacy and information and run community activities and provide support to access community resources to combat social isolation. Without these sesrvices many of the older people we work with would find themselves in long term care. Last year we provied advice and information to over 2,000 people and helped them improve their incoeme by an annualised amount of over£700,000.
We also supoorted over 250 older people to come together regularly, in a variety of community settings, and build social networks through learning new skills, sharing expertise and supporting each other.
We provide an advice and information drop in facitltiy every week day morning, with follow up appointments for more complex situations. We also provide this service on an ourtreach basis to other community settings where older people gather.
We work with volunteers to provide a number of activities for older people in the community, using existing resources as well as seeking funding for new developments. We support access to these activities and assist older people to come together to form social networks and support each other.