A charity on the Isle of Man is giving people confidence and a sense of independence through its shopmobility scheme.
Circa Isle of Man, located on level 2 of Chester Street car park, lends out powered mobility equipment to people with mobility issues so they can go out and enjoy the high street.
Chanelle Sukhoo spoke to Heather Williams from the charity
Hi I'm Chanel, one of the journalists at Meng's Radio. Welcome to the latest edition of Meng's Radio Newscast. My name is Heather Williams, I work at Circa and I'm the Centre Manager here. Tell me about Circa and the job that it does in the community. So we're a small Isle of Man charity operating under three different umbrellas if you want to call them. We are shop mobility service, a volunteering agency and a centre for information. The busiest of the three is by far the shop mobility side of the charity. Now when you say shop mobility what is shop mobility? So shop mobility is a service whereby we have all kinds of mobility equipment available for anybody to use. So we have powered mobility scooters, we have powered wheelchairs, we have manual wheelchairs, we have relators, we have basically anything that anybody struggling with mobility could make use of. And do you get lots of people coming through and using some of the equipment? Yet we have all kinds of service users. So we have people who have used the service for a long time. So people with long standing conditions for example MSME whereby they probably do have equipment at home that they use but they struggle to put that equipment in and out of their car which would allow them to go shopping for example or go along the prom. We have other users who maybe have had surgery and are temporarily requiring the use of a wheelchair. We have leg extensions so we've at the moment we've had a run of people with broken ankles. So the leg elevation devices have been great and pelt a lot of people there. And then we occasionally get children. Again normally it's as a result of an accident or an illness and they sure need require a wheelchair short. So we have some children's wheelchairs available as well. Perfect and I understand that all of these equipment it's free right? Free to the community. It is. So it's a free daily service. So anybody that wants to come into Douglas shopping or just to go along the promenade you can come and collect the equipment from 10 o'clock and as long as you return by four o'clock that's a free service, free daily service to the Isle of Man community. And again we have people that use it to meet people for lunch to just go along the promenade. And we had a lady who the last two summers has every Wednesday come in to collect a powered wheelchair to go and watch them watch to listen to the wheelitzer in the arcade and that's just said it's made her some of the fact that she was able to come here get a chair go for lunch and then go listen to the wheelitzer. Oh that's amazing. Can you tell me a little bit about the other services in terms of people being able to access the car part of the parking bay and then you being able to actually give them equipment even though they have their own? Yes. So next door to where we are on the second floor of Chester Street car part we have two car parking spaces allocated to anybody who is using the shop mobility service. So we have a parking disc which we issue that's free to park. So if you're having a full day out say from 10 to 4 you can park your car without the worry of having to get back in case your disc is run out or your ticket's run out. So we've got the two spaces next door. It is first-confused served as regards to using those spaces but normally works out. Normally people we have warning users and afternoon users so it does tend to work out but we do have service users with long-term mobility issues for example MS whereas if you turn up here and you struggle would struggle to get from your car to the shop then we can bring the equipment to you and assist with you getting comfortable in the chair. Obviously we can't actually move, we can't do moving and handling but we can assist with getting comfortable on the piece of equipment. Now speaking about the work that you're doing right it seems like it's a great initiative. Is circa, is it well known? Do you think more awareness needs to be drawn to the charity? Absolutely more awareness needs to be drawn. We find a lot of people you know of the charity if you need the service or if you require the service but there are still a lot of people out there I think who are not fully aware as to what we do the service that we offer so awareness is definitely we could always do with more awareness. Circa right well shop mobility you know talk to me about giving people the confidence to actually go out and you know just take that step and say actually I want to go out and I feel more confident and comfortable to go out. Yeah I mean we get a lot of people who will come in and have a look at the mobility equipment say they've never used it before and we always obviously give training so we don't anybody that terms up we don't just say there's your scooter off you go so we talk through how to use the equipment safely but we find a lot of people are reluctant to use the equipment due to pride which is a terrible thing because as a result of being proud and feeling that there's other people that need to use equipment more than them it means that they're missing out so we've always have you know it tends to be mothers or fathers with who come to use a piece of equipment for the first time with this or no daughter and it's very reluctant as in I'm only doing this to please them because they've said I should try it and they'll say we'll be half an hour we'll be going for half an hour and then we'll be back and normally it's about three or four hours later they come back their face is beaming they've had the best time ever they've met up with people just by driving through the street they haven't seen for 20 years so as I say once you you use it for the first time I don't think we've ever had anybody who's used a piece of equipment and come back and said that's it I'm never doing it again so it not only gives people the confidence but it also gives them their independence as well as you get that social angle yeah it's it's all of those things just to be able to to go shopping and choose what you would like to buy or if you're going to buy presents for somebody to be able to do it independently me the independent part of it is huge and it's it's so it's so good for your mental health to be able to have the freedom to go where you want and not say you know not to be reliant on on somebody else speaking about being reliant on somebody else now I understand that shop there's something there's an in there's a new initiative launched called the shop mobility buddy can you tell me about that yes so this is a brand new initiative we've been very fortunate in that we've been given funding by the Mike's Lottery Trust which has allowed us to do this so basically the service will provide a volunteer for somebody who is wanting to go into town shopping or for a walk on the promenade or to the Mike's Museum they will have a volunteer accompany them to give them confidence companionship and you know just to give you that extra help when you're out maybe shopping and that you know if you're in a wheelchair sometimes your item is on the higher shelf and you know if you have a volunteer with you they can assist you with that so it's say we're we're slow launching this and we've had a lot of interest obviously all of the volunteers would be please checked trained and we have various zones so the volunteer will know the good routes to go and the good shops to go in which have good access for people in using mobility equipment now this shop mobility buddy project that is being soft launch is this ahead of that busy festive Christmas period that late night shopping period it's going to tie in very nicely yes so obviously on the run up to Christmas I think it's on the 21st of November the Douglas have has the Douglas light switch on so circa will be open to accommodate anybody who would like to borrow a piece of equipment we did it last year and it you know it was those that use the service were really grateful just to have the opportunity to go and experience the Christmas festivities and the lights so yes so from the 21st on the first subsequent Thursdays then we will be open for anybody who would like to borrow a piece of equipment how does it feel to know that you're giving that inclusive feeling two people who may tend to shy away from it well tend to shy away from going out sorry it's the best feeling in the world it's that's the best part of the job knowing that you are genuinely helping people and making a huge difference just for them to be a part of normal and to have access and inclusion for people listening to the interview that would like to reach out to circa or would like to shop mobility how can they do that how can you give us the details so obviously we're located on the second floor of Chester Street car park in Douglas we're next door to Finch Hill doctors so we're open Monday to Friday between 10 and 4 so anyone's welcome to pop in at any time obviously we have Facebook page we have quite a good well very good website which details all of our services and telephone obviously old fashioned 613713 thank you for making it to the end of the manxeradian newscast you are obviously someone with exquisite taste may I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of manxeradia podcasts at your favorite podcast provider so our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone thank you (light music) [ Silence ]
