ALONE
ALONE (an acronym for “A Little Offering Never Ends”) is a national organisation that enables older people to age at home, using support plans, providing a point of contact for access to health, social care, housing, transport and other arising needs using technology and other services and activities to improve physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.
Guiding Principles and Core Values
ALONE’s principles and values underpin everything they do: how they organise ourselves, how they behave, how they make decisions, and how they engage with stakeholders including older people, volunteers, staff and partners. In particular ALONE is guided by the principles of Respect, Honesty, Collaborative Leadership, and Innovation.
• They respect the value, judgement, and autonomy of older people, acknowledging the challenges people face and working with them to find supportive solutions while also valuing early intervention to promote health & wellbeing in older people.
• They are honest in what needs to change in themselves and their sector, with an emphasis on being accountable and transparent in all they do, aiming to communicate and advocate clearly, and regularly with all stakeholders.
• A focus on working collaboratively within their sector, valuing and sharing knowledge, creating models and solutions that are transferable, scalable, and sustainable, with the goal of delivering evidence-based solutions, and measuring the impact to ensure they are effective, efficient, and operate to quality standards.
• They utilise an innovative infrastructure to lead, test and take risks to bring about change their sector, using their agility to design innovative solutions for current and emerging needs, to create and drive alignment, integration, and consolidation within our sector.
Types of Support
Coordinated Support
ALONE’s Coordinated Support empowers older people by devising personalised support plans in order to help older people address challenges and find solutions.
They offer access to their services while aiding coordination and enabling older people to access medical as well as non-medical sources of support within their community to improve physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.
The service offers help to resolve all types of difficulties, give practical support and engagement with local events and activities all our services includes providing technology solutions for older people to remain at home.
Visitation Support & Befriending Service
ALONE’s Visitation Support & Befriending Service provides regular visits to an older person. They provide friendship, practical support and links to local activities and initiatives.
Telephone Support & Befriending Service
ALONE’s Telephone Support & Befriending Service provides daily or weekly telephone contact to an older person. They provide friendship, advice and offer information on health and wellbeing, risk management and how to get involved in local activities and relevant initiatives.
Universally Designed Housing
ALONE’s Universally Designed Housing provides homes and ongoing support for older people who have housing difficulties.
They provide secure, long-term tenancies and supports which enable independent living and offer security, comfort and their own front door to older people who need it. ALONE housing is assistive technology enabled and every tenant has a Support Coordinator who provides ongoing support to coordinate any services they may require.
Technology and Community Supports
ALONE’s Assistive Technologies mission is to create an infrastructure to empower older people to use technology, enabling the user to manage their social connection, health, safety and security.
Staff and volunteers are trained to Distribute, Install and Respond to technology.
ALONES’s Technology Supports are being fully integrated throughout all ALONE Services and their partnership model.
Housing with Support
ALONE is a Tier 2 Approved Housing Body with over 40 years of experience supporting older people to age at home. Over the next 3 years ALONE’s new Housing with Support Development Unit will in partnership with the HSE, Local Authorities, AHBs and Private Developers retrofit communities across Ireland with more than 320 Universally Designed adaptable homes in clusters of 30 to 60 units. Housing with Support offers a real and tangible alternative to Nursing Homes and in hospital care and represents a massive saving to the state.
How Carlow Volunteers Can Help Out
ALONE’s website has a lot of information on the different ways that volunteers can get involved. Right now ALONE Carlow is looking for Telephone Support & Befriending Volunteers and National Support & Referral Line Volunteer, both of which can be done from home, as well as Visitation Support and Befriending Volunteers, who will meet with older people on a one-to-one basis. Training will be provided.
