What is POPPs?
What is POPPs -
Opening Doors for Older People Project?
POPPs stands for 'Partnerships for Older People's Projects'.
It is a two year government led programme, where local authorities were invited to bid for funding to develop innovative schemes to help older people to remain independent, healthy and active.
Tameside was awarded £1.15m from the Department of Health to develop and deliver its proposal, in partnership with a range of key agencies, such as Tameside & Glossop Primary Care Trust (PCT); Age Concern; Tameside Volunteer Centre, and St Peter's Community Partnership. The proposal was put together following extensive consultation with older people and their carers, and members of some of the groups that represent older people, such as Better Government for Older People (BGOP), Tameside Older People's Advisory Group (TOPAG) and the Really Important Questions (RIQ) group.
The Tameside project is known as 'Opening Doors for Older People', and it is designed to test the theory that, if older people can access the services they need at an early stage, there will be a reduction in the demand for intensive health and social care services.
The project also aims to increase the level of volunteering in the borough particularly by people aged over 50.
The specific objectives of the project are to reduce or delay admission to residential care, hospital, or intensive care at home.
The project has two elements or strands.
Strand 1 involves identifying and contacting older people and their carers who are most at risk of losing their independence but who do not yet require residential care, hospital, or intensive care at home.
Once contacted, for example through GPs, communities of faith and interest, community and voluntary sector organisations, older people will be offered a free Community Options for Remaining Active (CORA) check and support visit, which will look at a variety of factors, including Health Risks, Mobility, Falls, Social Contact, Carer Support, and how they manage their medication. The visit will take approximately one and a half hours. The CORA questionnaire can also be completed on-line
and submitted to the CORA Coordinator electronically, for analysis.
CORA check and support visits will be carried out by a team of volunteer CORA Advisors, who will be organised and trained by a community sector organisation.
CORA Advisors are likely to be early retired or working part-time, with valuable life skills, energy and commitment. Some may have experience of caring for a parent, wife or husband. The project offers them the opportunity to support and assist isolated older people in improving their health and general well-being.
After the CORA check and support visit, the older person will be given customised free information and advice based on the responses they gave during the visit. The advice may include directing or 'signposting' the older person to services or other sources of help, for example Befriending, Falls Prevention and schemes offering help with managing medication, Social and Luncheon Clubs, Neighbourhood Day Care Services, and home safety.
Where appropriate, direct assistance with arranging visits, appointments, services, etc may also be offered. In some instances, there may be a small charge for some services. CORA Advisors may also make referrals to Health and Social Care Services on behalf of the person.
All people taking part in the CORA check and support service will be offered a six-month follow up.
Strand 2 of the proposal involves using the CORA check and support visits to get the views of older people and their carers on the type of community services they need to support their independence and well-being.
Information obtained in this way will then be used to develop local social enterprises and re-shape community based services, using funding obtained from the POPP grant and, progressively, funding from elsewhere within the local health, social care and other services.
The impact of the CORA check and support service and will be measured during the life of the project to judge what effect accessing low level community based services, at an early stage, has on the demand for intensive health and social care services.
If you think that you, or anyone you know, might benefit from a CORA visit, or you are interested in becoming a volunteer CORA Advisor, please contact the CORA Coordinator.
Age Concern Tameside, 131 Katherine Street, Ashton-under-Lyne OL6 7AW
0161 308 5007 
cora@ageconcerntameside.com