We're here to help, and we support our Gloucestershire locals who have MND, their families and their carers in multiple ways. You can attend support groups, created for all local people with MND, their loved ones and carers. You can apply for financial help if you're struggling to fund essentials. Plus, you can arrange for one of our fully trained Association Visitors to check in on you with a face-to-face visit or by phone call, so you always have someone you can depend on. Explore the tabs below to find out more about the help and support on offer at the MNDA Gloucestershire Branch.
Support Meetings
We invite you to come to any or all of our regular Support Group Meetings, open to all local people with MND, their families, friends and carers. Our Support group meetings are usually held on the first Thursday of every month at St Andrews Church Hall.
We often invite speakers, arrange outings and other times we have tea and a chat. Whether you have MND, or you look after someone with MND, you will find a very warm welcome and a lively and supportive group of people, so do come along and join us when you can.
There is also a Forest of Dean Support Group meeting at Great Oaks Day Hospice, Cinderford. For details contact Clare Williams at [email protected] or 07947 160429.
To view when the next Support Group Meeting is taking place, please see our Events Calendar.
Support Meetings
The Gloucestershire Branch may be able to help you if you have been affected by MND by providing equipment or financial support.
Our financial support helps to fund equipment, care and quality of life interventions for people with MND and their families. We consider applications where a need has been assessed by a health or social care professionals or other appropriate person, and where:
- Equipment or a service has not been provided by a statutory service, or where the support does not fall within their statutory responsibilities or criteria.
- There is an unacceptable delay in provision by a statutory service.
- We can bridge the gap while awaiting provision by a statutory service.
- A ‘quality of life intervention’ is anything that will make life easier or more comfortable for the person with MND and/or your carer.
An application for financial support can be made:
- Either by a health or social care professional who has identified a need for the equipment or other service.
- Or by an Association Visitor, appropriate professional, person with MND or representative who can demonstrate a need for a quality of life intervention or a carer’s or young person’s grant.
In the past as a group we have provided financial support towards the cost of a variety of items and services such as, transport, holidays, home appliances and complementary therapies.
Association Visitors
Association Visitors (AVs) have a vital part to play in supporting people affected by MND – both those with the disease and those close to them. They offer free and confidential emotional support, information about the Association and other services, and help people to make informed choices.
All our Visitors are volunteers who have been carefully selected and have undergone a thorough training programme. Our Visitors are caring and reliable people based in the local community as members of a team. They usually:
- Make and maintain contact with people living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and their families, offering caring, informed support over the telephone, via email or by visiting them in their own home.
- Provide an invaluable link for people living with MND, keeping them in touch with the MND Association and proactively signposting them to various other sources of help.
- Enabling people with MND to identify problems as they arise and explore how these might be managed.
- Liaising with health and social care professionals.
If you would like to be put in touch with one of our Gloucestershire AVs, please contact our Gloucestershire Association Visitor, Ruth Vidal, on 07779 019664 or [email protected]
If you are interested in becoming an Association Visitor, please contact the Volunteering Team on 01604 611681 or email [email protected] to request an information pack, which includes an application form.
Visit the national MND Association AV Page for further information.