Feedback from our Partners

 

21 Feb 2017

“I feel that any day centre for the BME elders is a good provision and should be supported by other funders to help with funding implications. Culturally the Asian family dynamic are changing having more family members working e.g. son’s daughter’s and daughter in law’s. Traditionally they would have stayed home to care and accompany elder members of the family, so taking this into consideration the day centre for this type of community is a much needed and essential service as it can prevent isolation and loneliness.

 

It also builds friendship and support amongst the group which I have seen has a sense of belonging with a safe secure place to relax have fun whilst enjoying refreshments and home cooked meals. Both the Dhek Bhal men’s and women’s group provides a much required service which promotes health and social wellbeing of Asian elderly people and true to its name it Dhek Bhal’s (Looks after) and cares supports this community.”

 

Roopindera Kaur

Healthwatch Bristol Development Officer

Bristol Healthwatch 

 

Dec 2016 

"Dhek Bhal has always been a welcoming and productive partner to Healthwatch Bristol. They have engaged with our team on numerous occasions in 2016 and proactively invited us to their events so we can hear and act upon the health and social care needs of the South Asian community. Our partnership has enabled their service users to have their voices heard in terms of what the South Asian community wants from local health and social care services and helped empower the South Asian community to be actively involved in the development of these services. Their CEO, Zehra, is a Healthwatch Bristol Champion volunteer and proactively encourages their service users to tell us their experiences, what worked well and how service users would like to see health and social care changed to better meet the community’s needs. Staff have been friendly and passionate in their working partnership with us.

Dhek Bhal has also been a vital partner to The Care Forum and Healthwatch Bristol’s signposting service, WellAware; they have invited the WellAware team to many events so we can help inform service users about health and wellbeing services and how the community can access these where they live. "

Healthwatch Bristol

“My colleague Dan And I were invited by Dhek Bhal to host a Healthwatch stall at their  Celebrating Age event and to engage with the services user who attended the event. We found the event very well attended by the South Asian community.

The Staff at Dhek Bhal were very engaging and helpful. They ensured that the people we engaged with were able to communicate with us by translating what was being said and supporting those who were unable to mobilise effectively to access the stalls.

Therefore enabling us to gather important feedback about how the South Asian community in Bristol is accessing health and social care services.

All the feedback that were gathered from the event were used to produce a reports  which was sent to health and social care commissioners, to ensure positive change are brought to services.

It was a very good opportunity for both Dan and I to network with other stall holders. We were also able to have a taster of  South Asian culture in relation to the beautiful and tasty food that was prepared on the day and not forgetting the music which created a very happy atmosphere.”

Kervon Grant, The Care Forum

“Rashid Joomum and I attended the Celebrating Age event together on 26th September and were very warmly welcomed.


The event provided us with an opportunity to see the activities organised at Dhek Bhal to support the older members of the local South Asian community along with the specific presentations and exhibitions arranged for the day. We were also treated to a wonderful lunch prepared by volunteers on-site.

Rashid and I joined in with the gentle exercise sessions arranged respectively for the men and women who attend the centre regularly; and I was able to chat with some of the younger Asian women helping with the group, although dialogue with the older women present proved to be quite a challenge due to their natural reticence and the inevitable language barrier. The younger women seemed genuinely interested to hear about our roles at UH Bristol and several of them shared experiences with me - particularly of Maternity and Children’s Services. Some also took away leaflets about membership of the trust.

Over lunch I was also able to speak to 3 Afro-Caribbean women who are very involved in supporting the elderly and their carers within their community - and they had some real concerns about the experiences of older people in hospital, which I have since spoken to our chief nurse about.”

Carole Dacombe, Public Governor, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.

It is only through the kind invitation that Dhek Bhal extended to me that I was able to reach a section of our diverse community that the police often struggle to reach. Community and support groups such as Dhek Bhal are invaluable to the police as a 2 way line of communication, both for us to offer help and advice and for the community to contact the police with their concerns and have a collective voice. The opportunity to come and meet and talk in an informal setting was incredibly productive and I thorough enjoyed the time spent talking about the issues that concerned them, face to face. 

Insp Blatchford, Avon and Somerset Constabulary

"We have found Dhek Bhal to be a supportive and engaging partner of Bristol Ageing Better. Our involvement has included both supporting their project work through the kick­start fund and having Zehra’s input into the Programme Board. We have found both Zehra and Naheed respectful, helpful and efficient. From speaking to service users at open days it seems they feel well supported by Dhek Bhal and have their needs and opinions taken into account. The regular open days appear to be particularly effective in informing service users about other services available to them. We would feel very comfortable contacting Zehra if we had questions about engaging South Asian elders with social activities, or about their or their carers’ needs in general. We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with Dhek Bhal to reduce isolation and loneliness among Bristol’s diverse communities."

Bianca Rossetti, Age UK Bristol

"I have had 2 experiences of your service and was very satisfied with the interpreter. They were appropriate and helpful during the assessment."

Gill Self, Senior Occupational therapist.

"Dhek Bhal has a history of providing quality support services to South Asian carers in Bristol, and we work closely with them, signposĕng to their services as they do ours, in order to ensure that we are both able to idenĕfy and support carers not currently in contact with services. For example 2016, we collaborated on a funding bid to pilot a telephone counselling service for carers aged 50 and over in Bristol. Dhek Bhal have also been members of the Carer Organisaĕon Network Group which was set up to ensure that carer organisaĕons work closely together for peer support and share good practice."

Carers Support Centre

"The Dementia Wellbeing Service has successfully collaborated several times with Dhek Bhal since our launch in April 2015. In June this year, Dhek Bhal provided a Cultural Capability Information Session for Alzheimer’s Society staff which talked about the specific barriers people from South Asian communities face when accessing social care. The session was engaging, informative and invaluable to our work to become a fully inclusive service; meeting the needs of the diverse community of Bristol. The staff members who led the session were professional yet highly personable and approachable. They were very willing to answer our questions in breaks and after the session. They were clearly very knowledgeable about their work and evidently passionate about providing person­centred care for their service users. We have been pleased with how we have worked with Dhek Bhal and welcome further opportunities for future collaborations."

Dementia Wellbeing Service

"During my time as service manager and Carers Lead in Bristol City Council I worked closely with Dhek Bhal throughout 2016 to improve the support to carers from the South Asian community.
I found that Dhek Bhal were very keen to engage with the Council in order to improve outcomes for carers. Zehra and her staff team made time to meet with me and the integrated carers team and worked collaboratively and creatively to set up carers clinics at Dhek Bhal to make it easy for them to access help and support. All staff were professional, friendly and very welcoming. I have nothing but praise for the organisation and for the commitment shown in improving the health and wellbeing of the their service users and the local community."

Phoebe Whishaw

"Dhek Bhal were involved with a family supporting a service user who had a lot of health problems and family were very stressed and the situation was causing tension between family members. I found the service to be very dedicated and flexible towards trying to meet service user and family needs within a difficult and challenging situation where at times there was active conflict between family members.

Dhek Bhal also worked with another service user with dementia and I met one of the male support workers at the family home and found him very caring and very professional. The service was very flexible and very supportive towards the service user and service user’s partner.

There was good clear communication from Dhek Bhal in both of these examples which greatly helped in meeting the needs and reassessing needs of service users. Dhek Bhal have been very good in flagging up issues that have needed to be addressed. Service users have benefited from the support of day services and the support at home. Dhek Bhal were also good at alerting social services to times when respite is needed for carers."

Sue Danton

Will Bee, Equality Coordinator, South Gloucestershire Council

 "Dhek Bhal found 3 volunteers to speak at our conference on isolation and loneliness. They provided a wonderful insight into how this issue can affect people from the BME community. Zehra then ran a workshop which gave more information and some useful advice to those attending. Thank you for your important contribution."

Will Bee, Equality Coordinator, South Gloucestershire Council

 

Oasis Talking Therapies project working with Shazia Riaz - She has arranged taster sessions with our Womens and Mens Daycentres and the Carers Group throughout May - July 2017

The members who have participated have found the sessions informative and useful. We are looking at extending the partnership working to enable Dhek Bhal members to have counselling sessions from oasis at Dhek Bhal premises - watch this space

 

 

 

 

Avon Fire Rescue 

 

To arrange a home Fire Safety Visit click here 

The can assist with providing the following equipment or help during their visits:-

In term of what equipment can be provided to service users dependant on their needs, includes the following:

 

·         Linked alarms, smoke, heat and Carbon Monoxide that can be connected to a deaf alarm that has a vibrating pad that sits under the pillow

·         Stand-alone versions of these

·         Remote test switches for alarms

·         Deaf alarms

·         Fire retardant bedding and blankets

·         Lockable plug sockets

·         Lockable letterboxes

·         Referrals on for monitored alarms

·         Dementia bands

 

If you would prefer Dhek Bhal to refer you to the Avon Fire Service, we would be more than happy to do this click here 

 

Healthwatch Bristol

Highlighted a collaborative piece of work between Healthwatch Bristol and Dhek Bhal in relation to tackling loneliness and social isolation in the South Asian community. Healthwatch has now completed a short film showcasing this collaborative piece of work. To view the short film visit. W: http://bit.ly/2s14l99 Also for copies of the full reports, please visit the following links. Dhek Bhal women’s engagement summary. W: http://bit.ly/2s164Lz Dhek Bhal men’s engagement summary W: http://bit.ly/2slEOGZ