3 minute read
My Role as a First Responder
Emma McQueen, WC?S Training & Education Officer
After years working to support Care Experienced people, I started my journey with Who Cares? Scotland as an advocate back in 2017. Now I am a Training & Education Officer, which involves working closely with your Corporate Parents to make sure they understand their duties and to ensure that they support you correctly. I love my job and I love being part of the WC?S family!
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This year I took on a very different role, I became a First Responder.
In March 2020, the whole world went into lockdown due to COVID-19. It was a scary and tense time with people not knowing what the new reality looked like or when we would get back to “normal”. No one could go to school, college, or work – unless you were a key worker. You could not leave your house unless it was for essential shopping or your daily walk! People lost their jobs and their businesses, and the NHS was under a lot of pressure to keep us safe and healthy meaning that essential services such as mental health services were impacted.
At Who Cares? Scotland, we understood immediately the impact the new reality would have on the Care Experienced community. We knew we needed to take immediate action to ensure our community was safe, healthy, and supported. With funding from the Scottish Government, we opened our first ever helpline. Members of the Care Experienced community could call us for advice if they were struggling financially for food and heating or if they were struggling with their mental health and needed a little bit of comfort and assistance. We were able to offer financial assistance to those who were struggling during a time of crisis. We were able to provide this service because members like you unanimously voted to amend our constitution to enable us to do so
Many callers had lost their job due to COVID-19 and many others were having issues with Universal Credit. The
money sent to the Care Experienced people who called, enabled them to fill their fridges and heat their homes.
Being a First Responder also meant stepping once again into my role as an advocate. Every call was slightly different and different people needed me to help with different issues. Some wanted me to speak with their social worker and advocate on their behalf, others required help in speaking to companies they owed bills to, and many needed me to locate and contact food and energy banks for them. On the line, we had numerous callers who were also calling for emotional support due to the isolation experienced throughout lockdown. Many mental health services were not available, and people were struggling with their emotional and mental wellbeing during this hard time. Some callers required longer term support around them and so I would ask WC?S advocacy workers and social work to help them going forward. Being a First Responder was an honour and a humbling experience. I am relieved that we were able to be there for our members and the wider community. Following on from the positive feedback on our helpline, it is evident that a dedicated phone line is a valued source of connection for our community, which is why I’m really happy Who Cares? Scotland has evolved the helpline into our new Advice and Support line for Care Experienced people of any age across Scotland (and people who may be alongside them).
