Support sought for a vision for the future

Local charity Regenerate RISE held a wonderful event on Monday 8 April to showcase their plans to build a 10 bed Reablement Unit in SW15 for older people on discharge from hospital. The project was granted planning permission by Wandsworth Council’s Planning Committee in 2017 and would be unique to Wandsworth, providing a modern dementia friendly centre. Staff at the centre would focus on encouraging independence through an environment of care and support, enabling guests to live confidently in their own homes after leaving the unit.

Regenerate.com was established by Mo Smith MBE FRSA and her son Andy in 2000 when together they identified the need for a Lunch Club for older people in the heart of the Alton Estate, one of the most deprived areas in the borough of Wandsworth.

From those small beginnings sprang a second base in Putney at the Platt Centre in Felsham Road and a new charity was set up by Mo called Regenerate-RISE. RISE stands for 'Reaching the ISolated Elderly', and the charity provides lunches, outings, hospital and home visits, and outreach events such as the annual Kings & Queens lunch in Roehampton which is a highlight of the community calendar, with hundreds of older people attending.

Recent projects to raise funds include working with a local company, Assael Architecture to produce a recipe book called 'We Draw, We Cook, We Give' which included recipes from Assael’s staff and members of Regenerate-RISE. We Draw, We Cook, We Give was on sale in Waterstones in the Putney Exchange for £15 and is currently being re-printed.

Regenerate-RISE also works in partnership with Tideway and their staff volunteer in the Centre on a weekly basis. Local schools, companies and the Dover House Singers are all supporting RISE in raising funds for the Reablement Centre. The charity has already raised an impressive £1,088,970.44 and needs to raise a further £1,260,300. Details of how you can help are set out below! All support would be most gratefully received!

The sorts of situations which the centre is intended to prevent can be movingly encapsulated in the story of Kath – pictured below:



Kath lived in Wandsworth for the majority of her 87 years, and in her latter years in Putney. She was supported and cared for by both Regenerate-RISE and Bluebird Care. RISE organised lunches, activities, her shopping, arranged volunteers to help with the garden, staff attended hospital visits and Bluebird Care provided her package of care. In the Summer of 2015 she was taken ill and admitted to the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital where she sadly subsequently died of Hospital Acquired Pneumonia. Kath had been ready for discharge three times, but on each occasion, it took too long to sort out the new services that she required. 24 hours before she died, the hospital called her son in Australia and he booked a flight to come and see her. Sadly, Kath died before her son’s plane landed at Heathrow. The new RISE Centre could have provided a safe place for Kath to stay whilst her after-hospital care was being arranged.

The NHS England statistics for December 2018 stated 'There were 129,400 days lost through ‘bed blocking’ in December 2018, of which 82,800 were in acute care'.

The Hammersmith & Fulham CCG were in attendance at the event as the new centre will serve five of the main hospitals in South West London, including St George’s. Mo Smith said, 'We are looking forward to working alongside the CCG with the provision of a new service that we believe will provide an innovative and dynamic Centre that integrates health, social care and the voluntary sector'. The new service will provide integrated day services, socialising, outings, home visits, activities, entertainment, an adopt a granny/granddad scheme, volunteer support and an after-care scheme along with the residential stay at a cost of around £990 per week for the residential care. One of the most exciting activities would be the Magic Table in the new therapy room, which is an interactive sensory table designed specifically for people with Dementia, which has pictures projected onto the table which stimulates reminiscence and relaxation. The cost of such a table is £8,000. Each of the 10 residential rooms in the Centre would be designed differently with a theme that will enable patients with Dementia to recognise their room and engage with their surroundings.


Fleur Anderson

Fleur Anderson, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Putney, Southfields & Roehampton, said 'Regenerate RISE’s plans are ambitious and important for local people to help provide the sort of care we all hope to receive for ourselves and our families. The challenges in the area of adult social care are significant, and there is a lot of pressure on local hospitals. This sort of project would be very welcome and Regenerate RISE does excellent work for the community in Putney. Their fundraising to date is extremely impressive! I’m really keen to help raise awareness of this project so that they find the rest of the funding they need. It would be great to see this project underway soon'.

If you are a local resident or Company and you would like to support or sponsor the new Reablement Centre, please contact Mo and the Regenerate Rise team at sw15@regenerate-rise.co.uk or by calling 07774 116 972.

Cllr Claire Gilbert and Mo Smith

April 12, 2019