borrow equipment for two weeks

[wendy]

Hello,



I work for the Disabled Living Foundation, a national charity based in London that has been around for about 40 years. We have a free program in place that is now expanding nationally, which aims to help improve quality of life and I thought you might be interested in it. It could make a difference in small ways to make a carer’s life easier.



We have recently received funding from the Department of Health to expand our library of simple electronic aids from which people in the UK can borrow equipment for free for up to 2 weeks. The reasoning behind this is that there is evidence that such aids can improve people’s quality of life, but that the older age group in particular shy away from trying it as they are unsure it will work for them, and lack confidence they can learn how to operate it. The aim of the library is to break down these barriers, provide support during the loan period, and to get the right piece of equipment out to the right people.
mashael.zaidi@dlf.org.uk


There are  items in our loan library that may provide support for carers. We have door sensors with pagers and alarms.  You can also set voice messages for alarms which for example, announce that it is time to take medication, if the carer cannot be there to tell them. The pager system is helpful if you are caring for someone who gets disoriented and leaves their house, alerting you to bring them back inside again. Item locators can help when someone tends to misplace keys or similar items. We hope that by using our equipment for two weeks, the person may be able to find a way to improve their quality of life or at least make a more informed decision about equipment that they buy or do not buy.



If you’d like to have a look at our library content online, please find a link to it here: http://www.dlf.org.uk/library



The library items broadly cover three main categories:



·        Memory prompts

·        Devices to notify a carer within the same house that someone may require assistance

·        Devices to help blind or partially sighted individuals identify or operate household items

This service is free, but I should also mention that we do take a deposit for the equipment before we mail it out to the user (simply to ensure we get the equipment back again), and also that the user must pay for the postage required to send the item back to us by special delivery (usually £3-£5) when they’re done with it. When we get the item back their deposit is reimbursed in full. If they wish to purchase the item we send them an impartial list of the national suppliers we are aware of selling the product, which is never us (we don’t sell anything).



If you are interested, I am happy to mail you brochures and postcards for our loan library to distribute as you wish.  If you want to arrange this, or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.


mashael.zaidi@dlf.org.uk

[Misspears]

than999

[daisy]

than999

[wendy]

hope this is helpful