Sylvarani Nair

Sylvarani Nair, Team Leader, Personal Independence Coordinators Service, Age UK Croydon

“I have worked in the voluntary sector for over 25 years and have been with Age UK Croydon’s Personal Independence Co-ordinators (PIC) Service since November 2016.  I’ve always worked with NHS colleagues throughout my career.

“In my current role, I’m a Team Leader for the PIC Service.  PICs are part of Integrated Community Network and attend “huddles” in every GP surgery in Croydon.  Huddles bring together GPs, District and Community Nurses, Community Pharmacists, and Social Workers to identify those who, for whatever reason, are not able to manage their health and well-being and are being admitted on a regular basis to hospital.  I manage and support a team of PICs and I also carry a case load of PIC people as well as attend huddles.

“I love working with people, in particular the elderly people who are referred to our service via GP huddles.  We apply a ‘person centred’ approach to working with these individuals; the person guides us as to how we tailor our support for them.  Much, if not all, of what we do comes from what people tell us they need in order to be enabled and supported to manage their health and well-being.

“Working with colleagues in the huddles aids and supports the work that we do.  We have built up positive working relationships with all our colleagues from district nursing, GPs, Social Services, health visiting and pharmacy which helps us to connect our PIC people to the services they need most.

“We are fortunate enough to be able to spend time with people to get to know them and understand their motivations, concerns and worries.  This really helps us to offer the right support and advice around benefits, enablers to improving their health and wellbeing management as well as advice on how to reduce loneliness in a way that works for them.”