Right Equipment – Right Time
For a child with a disability having the right piece of specialist equipment at the right time can be simply life-changing; reducing the pain they feel and providing them with the opportunity to do everyday things many of us take for granted. When a child does have the right equipment, it also impacts on the physical and mental health of the child’s main carer, most often Mum or Dad.
Our Equipment Grant service provides a lifeline to these families, often after they’ve been refused equipment by their local health and social care services. We can provide specialist seating, wheelchairs or buggies, beds and communication aids – we also don’t limit the number of applications families can make.
How does the Equipment Grant service work?
Fill out the application form (available from the Newlife Charity website), giving as much information about your child’s condition, the piece of equipment they need and how having it will affect their daily life.
All applications must be supported by a health care professional involved in your child’s care such as Occupational Therapist or Social Worker. Once received, one of our fully qualified, paediatric nurses will review and assess your application.
In very urgent cases, the nurses can ‘fast-track’ the application and order the equipment the same day, although delivery depends on availability through the supplier.
For less urgent applications, the process can take between three to six months during which time we may contact you to discuss ways you might be able to help raise the funds through your local community. We will also liaise with your local Health and Social Care Services to see if they should be making a contribution to the grant.
Are you eligible?
If your child or young person is under 19 years old, is a permanent resident in the UK and has a significant disability that affects their daily life, including a life threatening, limiting or terminal illness, then they could be eligible for a Newlife Equipment Grant.
How to apply to Newlife Charity?
Application forms can be submitted online or downloaded from the Newlife Charity website. We strongly recommend calling the FREE Nurses Helpline before completing an application so they can talk you through the process and answer any queries you might have.
Helping Bailey to Stand Tall
Three-year-old Bailey Jennings was born with Cerebral Palsy. He can’t sit up, crawl or stand without support and needs to be strapped into a specialist standing frame to stretch out his muscles several times a day. If he’s unable to do this, he’ll have to have painful hip surgery in the near future.
Although Bailey has a standing frame at nursery, which he’s able to use for a short time when he’s there, it’s too bulky to take home. However, because he does have access to a frame – albeit only for a few hours a day during term time - the NHS won’t fund what they call ‘duplicate equipment’.
Bailey’s mum Abigail explains: “Bailey needs to stretch his muscles after nursery, weekends and holidays, otherwise they spasm painfully and become tight and rigid. This causes his hips to rotate out of place faster and speed up the need for surgery to correct it.
Desperate to relieve some of Bailey’s pain she turned to Newlife for help to fund the £1,180 frame.
“I was so relieved when the standing frame arrived from Newlife. Bailey is so happy he can stand up and can do so much more.”
Newlife's other services
Emergency Equipment Loans
Newlife runs the UK’s only rapid response loan service, providing equipment free of charge to children who are in very urgent need, often delivering within 72 hours.
This emergency service is for those children who cannot wait for the equipment they desperately need. This may be because the child is at immediate risk of significant injury, has a shortened life expectancy or is terminally ill.
We aim to deliver urgently needed specialist equipment within 72 hours to children whose safety and health is at risk without it.
Nurses Helpline
Newlife’s fully qualified and registered Nurses are on hand to speak to families through our free national helpline and on-line chat platform. They can provide information on local and national health/social care services, benefits and rights, where to turn and how to access support, as well as details on specific conditions.
Play Therapy Pods
Newlife believes every child has a right to play. The therapeutic benefits are proven to support a disabled child’s behavioural, cognitive and social development. We offer pods of specialist toys that are suitable from birth up to the child/young person’s 19th birthday that are provided on a free 12-week loan.
Comfort Capsules
When a child is given a terminal diagnosis, the medical needs of the child often outweigh the emotional needs of the whole family. Newlife’s Comfort Capsules include a collection of carefully chosen products for the child and the family, combining practical products with items that enable the family to make lasting memories of their child.
Find out more about Newlife
For more information about Newlife and its services, you can call the charity on 01543 462777.
If you want to make an application, or need support and advice, you can call our free Nurse Helpline on 0800 902 0095 . Alternatively you can visit our website www.newlifecharity.co.uk where you will find further information and online application forms for all of our services.
Read the Newlife Charity profile on the Turn2us Grants Search
Photograph: Copyright Newlife Charity and used with permission.