Live at Home’s lockdown service is up and running again.

The charity helps older people to live ’happily at home for as long as they can’ and it has around 500 members in the island.

During the first lockdown last March, the charity provided members with a range of support to combat loneliness.

One of the main ways it did this was to adapt its befriending services to instead operate via telephone. Some 5,300 calls were made to members during this time. Having received a grant of £45,000 from the Manx Lottery Trust and since Covid-19 restrictions were eased last year, Live at Home was able to start two new regular community lunch groups for members in the north and Douglas.

However, these and other face-to-face events had to end when the circuit breaker lockdown began a week ago.

Now the charity is once again activating the support services which it had developed through the experiences of last year.

Chief executive Jackie Bridson said the charity was well placed to go into what it was doing before.

She added: ’As with the previous lockdown period, our team and volunteers will concentrate our efforts on keeping those isolating feeling connected.

’We can also act as a point of information, advice and guidance for those that may not be able to access information through the internet (with a charity survey finding that over 75% of its members do not have internet access).’

’We have always been, and remain, a friendly voice on the end of the phone in worrying times for people without support.

’If you are in need of support contact freephone number 0808 162 4604 even if you have not been previously known to the charity.’

The Live at Home Team is now making contact with members to establish what kind of support they can provide to them, which includes telephone befriending, providing information and advice as to how to access deliveries and supplies, and by being a place to call on if someone just needs to chat. A list of organisations that are offering help to the vulnerable is in this week’s Manx Independent.