Hearts of Herts

Above: Action on Disibility

SINCE 1958, Hertfordshire Action on Disability has been delivering innovative, affordable, practical services to disabled people in and around the county. The charity is based at the Terry Stevens Centre, close to the QEII Hospital in Welwyn Garden City, which has recently undergone a major refurbishment programme and has also been renamed in honour of the charity’s late chairman.

The centre plays host to a long list of products including continence management products, walking sticks, rollators, wheelchairs, shower and bathroom equipment and bath lifts and kitchen equipment – in fact everything imaginable to help meet all the essential needs of disabled people, their families and their carers throughout the county.

It also boasts the adult care services FASTEST – Fast Track Equipment Service Team – ensuring people get all the equipment they need as fast as possible. Manager Diane Stevens is a qualified Occupational Therapist and is on-hand to give expert assessments and friendly advice.

The mobile ‘on-wheels’ service sees the lorry affectionately named Ivanhoe become a regular visitor to town centres and car parks up and down the county taking products and services to people in other parts of Hertfordshire who are unable to travel to the centre. In addition to its vast array of products and services ‘Ivanhoe’ also provides a benefits advice service run in conjunction with Age Concern Hertfordshire.

A wheelchair accessible transport service is available 24 hours a day and provides one-off or regular journeys for work, doctor’s appointments, shopping trips and other leisure activities. Vehicles are fully converted minibuses with floor clamping, inertia reel seatbelts and each vehicle can transport up to two wheelchair users and three seated passengers comfortably at any one time. A self-drive hire service is also available.

Driving assessments and instruction for people with physical disabilities are offered in specially adapted and dual-controlled vehicles through the centre which has achieved full accreditation as a member of the Forum of Mobility Centres. Vehicle appraisal and conversion advice is also available.

A team of counsellors offer a counselling service with advice and help for people with disabilities, their family members and their carers.

Join in

Get into the party spirit and help
HAD celebrate their 50th birthday by attending some very special fundraising events throughout the year:

• Jazz Night – Saturday, June 21 at 7pm, 13 Lemsford Village. Bring your own picnic and listen to the soulful sounds of Bob Thomas and the Thomcats and Liquorice Allsax
• Dance the night away to the Joe Loss Orchestra at the Broxbourne Civic Centre on Saturday, September 13 from 6.30pm
• Get a hole-in-one and win a brand new Jaguar XF, courtesy of Grange Welwyn at the Golf Day, Mill Green Golf Club, Welwyn Garden City on Friday September 19
• Feast on an Elizabethan banquet at Hatfield House on Saturday October 25 at 7pm

For further information on all these services call 01707 324581 or visit www.hadnet.org.uk