Lifeline Responder Plus - (Volunteer Cornwall)

There is a large number of people that are living in Cornwall with a lifeline in place.  This enables them to call for help if required and supports people to remain in their own homes, as independently as possible.

There are occasions when emergency contacts for people are unavailable and this sometimes results in an ambulance being called unnecessarily. The purpose of this role is to have a flexible response service where volunteers will be willing to respond, if available, to lifeline alarms across a patch rather than solely responding to named individuals.

No experience in care is necessary.

Volunteers should:

• Be able to communicate well with other people
• Be able to understand and maintain confidentiality
• Be able to show empathy and be supportive
• Be kind and compassionate
• Comply with all Volunteer Cornwall policies relevant to the role
• Be reasonably fit and healthy

Volunteer Tasks and Responsibilities

What you will be doing:

• Be a named responder for your area
• Accessing properties via agreed routes e.g. key safe
• Assessing the situation and risk
• Liaising directly with responder co-ordinator if additional support is required
• Making someone comfortable if they have fallen on the floor and are unable to get up unaided - cover with a blanket and provide a pillow
• Providing updates to the ambulance service if required
• Keeping them company and reassured whilst waiting for further help
• Debriefing responder co-ordinator
• Reporting any safeguarding concerns

This role will require the appropriate level of PPE on hand to be supplied by the Health & Care agencies or Local Authority.

Time Commitment

You are not committing to being available 24 hours a day – the Lifeline service will always be the first point of call for any clients, and you will contacted based on your availability (this can be as little or as much time as you would like to commit).

Support and Training

This role will require two references and a DBS check (Adult Enhanced).  If you do not have a current DBS, we will arrange this for you.

• Safeguarding (Mandatory) Complete the online Safeguarding presentation (a three-hour version of our one-day training).

• NHS Training (Optional) The NHS training is free online – you do not need to register at this time.  There is one session and you will need to read the Hand washing information indicated below from e-learning for Healthcare (NHS England) website.  Please be aware that these are based on Hospital situations but will still give you a flavour of what is expected.  There are many other free training sessions that you may wish to also look at if you are interested and in which case it may be worthwhile registering on the site so that you can easily have a log of all your training.   You are free to explore and undertake other learning if you are interested. 

https://portal.e-lfh.org.uk/Component/Details/604722

• Health, Safety and Infection Prevention and Control for Volunteers (Mandatory)
   
• Volunteer Standards Training (Mandatory): Standard 9 Moving and Assisting https://volunteerlearning.community/

Optional further training and development opportunities to enable a volunteer to be able to support in cases which require specific training. This may include –

• Moving and handling
• Medication training
• First aid
• Lifting training

Safeguarding

We will also be doing follow up calls to both you and the person you are supporting to ensure that you are both safe and happy with the arrangement.

For more information, or an informal chat, contact cvcteam@volunteercornwall.org.uk or call 01872 266988