Hi again, everyone! My name is Jane Ascott and I am the nurse leading on the peer support programme for all Salford Royal kidney patients and their relatives.
World Kidney Day is a great time to raise awareness of peer support and how it can really help kidney patients!
The programme is designed so that people with similar experiences and conditions can support each other as it has been proven to be such an effective tool. We currently have two volunteers that are available to support kidney patients and their families and also two volunteers that are nearly through the volunteer services and will be undertaking their training shortly. A further four volunteers are waiting to go through volunteer services and hopefully this will be happening shortly.
Two kidney patients have already been supported through the programme and another patient is about to receive support. The feedback that I have received regarding the support given through the programme has been positive and has been shown to be an effective tool.
Our supporters are volunteer kidney patients and relatives who offer one-to-one confidential support. They are fully trained and have similar experiences, ages and backgrounds.
The supporters cover all areas: Bolton, Salford, Wigan, Oldham and Rochdale. We also have medical staff who are ‘clinical champions’ in all these areas whose role is to identify patients who would be good supporters or patients that would benefit from being supported.
The peer support programme has recruited two more nurses, Mena and Arun who are helping with our Black, Asian, and Ethnic Minority (BAME) population. Both are able to speak different languages as communication can sometimes be an issue when English isn’t the first language.
We have also set up closed Facebook groups covering the different areas of renal as social media has also been shown to be an effective tool for patients supporting other patients.
So if this programme is something that you are either interested in becoming a part of or would benefit from peer support, please get in touch with me – jane.ascott@srft.nhs.uk.
Brilliant idea love the fact there is someone there if you need to talk got my support
Hi, I’m currently on dialysis first time, could I have more information regarding the training etc.
Hi Zoe, please contact Jane Ascott, the nurse who leads the peer to peer service at Salford Royal.Her email is jane.ascott@srft.nhs.uk