Domestic and Shopping Services - Faversham & Sittingbourne

Please note, this service is not available outside Age UK Kent Rivers - Head Office's catchment area.

The Old Fire Station
Crescent Road
Faversham
ME13 7GU
United Kingdom

Email: reception@ageukfs.org.uk
Telephone: 01795 532766

Age UK Kent River's Domestic and Shopping Service aims to support you to remain independent by providing practical help with those daily tasks that you may find difficult to do on your own. Sometimes we need a little help to enable us to carry on doing the things in life that we need or want to do.

The Domestic and Shopping Service is a flexible service that can help you live how you choose to. The service is available from Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm (excluding Bank Holidays). This service is for people aged 50 and over who live in Faversham, Sittingbourne and surrounding rural villages.

Domestic Services

We provide professional and friendly help with day-to-day domestic tasks to help older people to stay in their homes for longer.

All of our home help staff are experienced, have passed a security check and have received full training. The service is flexible and can be tailored to suit your own needs, helping you with light domestic cleaning including:

o Hoovering
o Dusting of surfaces
o Mopping floors
o Organising light clutter
o Emptying bins
o Cleaning of main living spaces
o Watering plants and flowers.

Shopping Services

Being able to shop for food is an important part of staying well and independent as we age. We support older people to be in control of what food they purchase with our grocery delivery and escorted supermarket shopping services.

Our Shopping Services have a range of benefits for older people, including preventing malnutrition, reducing social isolation and enabling them to be independent and remain in their own home for longer.

Some older people are housebound and unable to do their own shopping. Age UK Medway works with the older person to create a shopping list and their groceries are then delivered to their home.

Escorted services

Some older people are mobile enough to go out but need some extra assistance with transport to and getting around food stores. Age UK Kent Rivers can assist a client one-on-one with their shopping, allowing them to browse the store and select their groceries themselves. As well as helping with shopping, this provides older people, particularly those who live alone, the opportunity to get out and interact with others. To find out more visit our Escorted Support Service

Why does shopping become more difficult in later life?

One in five (19%) of people aged 80-84 say they have difficulty shopping for groceries. This rises to 60% for those aged over 90. Age UK's research shows that older people face a number of barriers to food shopping:

o Difficulty getting to food shops, particularly for those living in rural areas with further to travel and those who do not drive a car.
o Store layouts can be difficult due to high or low shelves and a lack of adequate rest facilities
o Difficulty carrying goods to and from the supermarket
o Some people struggle with online shopping and/or value the social interaction of doing their shopping in person.