The RED plan-it

2 GoodGymers made their way to help an isolated older person in Hackney.

: Friday, 3rd of January 2020

Tonight I met up with Beth for a mission in Hackney for Ms J as we both continued our RED January good deed streak 😎💪🏻

Ms J has limited mobility and uses a hoist to get in and out of bed. Over the years, she's accumulated a lot of things in her bedroom, making it more difficult to use the hoist. GoodGym were asked if we could help make it safer to use the hoist by decluttering her bedroom.

After saying hello to Ms J and one of her healthcare workers, J, we asked them where they wanted us to start. This confused them a little, as Ms J and J thought that we were there simply to talk through potential floor plans/move options rather than to move anything/declutter that evening. It also turned out that Ms J's other carers (not present) wanted her bed moved into a new orientation so that they could gain access to both sides of the bed with the hoist.

With everyone a bit confused, we decided that the best thing to do would be to work out the options for moving the furniture, trial them out, and see how Ms J felt about them. Plan of action sorted, we got started!

After talking through everyone's requirements for the move, it turned out that there really was only option that would suit everyone. This was to shift the bed away from the wall diagonally by about a metre and to move a bedside cabinet to the newly revealed wall. We quickly shifted everything and got Ms J in to look. She didn't like the change (& I can totally understand why, as it made her room feel much closer and would probably impact her mental health in the long run), so we moved it all back again.

Now that we know that the only logistically possible configuration isn't suitable, this should help Ms J's carers and occupational carers decide potential options for moving forward (for example, J mentioned a modified workstation, or moving some more furniture items out of the room). Hopefully we (or some other GoodGymmers) will be able to return to help effect the move when a final plan has been worked out :)

Until next time (tomorrow), Beth! 😄

Report written by Elizabeth