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What does Age UK Torbay do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wellbeing coordinators from Age UK Torbay offer personalised support to people over 50 living in Paignton and nearby areas. They help by providing emotional support, useful information, and by connecting people to services they might need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Referrals can come from a helpline, social prescribers, or organisations such as housing services, mental health, and adult social care. The support Age UK Torbay can offer can includes mental health support, counselling, wellbeing, and information and advice, and making it easier to access other services. They do this through phone calls or home visits. They aim to stay in touch with people over the long term, checking in regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In their support work they follow key values of being person-centred, professional, proactive, responsive, and acting with integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shadowing a wellbeing coordinator<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On the morning of 21 July 2025, I travelled to Paignton, changing a bus and two trains from Plymouth. The Age UK Torbay office was a five-minute walk from the station. When I arrived at 10am, the office was lively, with the helpline ringing, staff signing in, and conversations were already underway. I was warmly welcomed with a hot drink and took a few moments to look around. The posters and leaflets gave an overview of the support Age UK Torbay offers and the partners they work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I soon met Ginny Lea-Worth, Senior Wellbeing Coordinator, who I was going to shadow for the day. She introduced me to her colleague Mark Shephard who specialises in housing-related referrals and has in-depth experience in this area. We had a two-hour chat about housing challenges that are common in the area, and factors that have made them more common than, say the time before the Covid pandemic. They shared real-life stories to explain how housing challenges linked closely to long term conditions, mental health in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was shown how they use their electronic system to manage referrals, communicate with other services like social prescribers and mental health teams, track each person\u2019s case over time, and ensure privacy and data protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the visit, I also met other members of the team, including reception staff, the finance officer, and Mandie Giles, the Wellbeing Manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, I joined Ginny on a home visit to a client living with multiple long-term health conditions. In the past, when the client faced eviction, Age UK Torbay helped them find a more suitable place to live. This visit was a routine check-in to see how they were doing and whether they needed any further support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CO-ACTION and Age UK Torbay<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In this context, it was valuable to see how wellbeing coordinators at Age UK Torbay support people over 50 who face multiple barriers in accessing the help they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, many people struggle with online forms and systems, due to lack of internet access, devices, digital skills, or health issues like poor eyesight. Wellbeing coordinators help by filling out forms for them to be able to navigate these systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, people often don\u2019t know what services or benefits they\u2019re entitled to, based on their age, disability, health conditions, or caring responsibilities. Age UK Torbay services provide clear information and help with making applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, people with complex needs often must deal with many different services that don\u2019t always communicate well. Coordinators help by linking up services like housing, mental health, and adult social care, drawing on local relationships they have built over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fourth, they offer ongoing support, checking in regularly based on what each person needs. They are flexible in their approach as every person\u2019s needs are different and change over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, recognising that housing problems like unsuitable homes, stairs, poor conditions, or homelessness can affect people\u2019s health and mental wellbeing, Age UK Torbay helps people aged 50+ who are at risk of eviction or homelessness find safe housing and get the support they need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Written by Alankrita Singh (Research Fellow, CO-ACTION) Date: 21\/07\/25 CO-ACTION visits Age UK Torbay office in Paignton\u00a0 What does Age UK Torbay do? Wellbeing coordinators from Age UK Torbay offer personalised support to people over 50 living in Paignton and nearby areas. They help by providing emotional support, useful information, and by connecting people to… Continue reading CO-ACTION Researcher shadowed wellbeing coordinator from Age UK Torbay in Paignton<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/co-action\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/co-action\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/co-action\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/co-action\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/co-action\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/co-action\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/co-action\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/co-action\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/co-action\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/co-action\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/co-action\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/112\/2026\/01\/Picture-2.jpg\")
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CO-ACTION is a research project that aims to improve life for people with multiple long-term health conditions, especially those who are underserved by healthcare services. At this stage, the project is working with people with lived experience, carers, and professionals to design the CO-ACTION intervention together. A key focus is understanding how services, like healthcare, housing, mental health, and social care work together (or don\u2019t), and how roles like wellbeing coordinators can help bridge the gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n