New partnership ready to help families in need

Wolverhampton Council has joined forces with specialist palliative and bereavement support charity Compton Care to help patients and families struggling through the cost of living crisis.

The council has allocated £100,000 from the government’s Household Support Fund for Compton Care to allocate to patients and their families to help throughout the year with everything from food and bedding to one-off items of equipment to make patients more comfortable.

Over the last year, Compton Care, which has been supporting people with life limiting conditions for over 40 years, has helped 359 patients and their families with £43,000 of the funding.

Leader of the council, Councillor Stephen Simkins, said: “It is heart breaking to know people battling terminal or critical illnesses are also having to worry about money and can’t afford to buy enough food or heat their homes – none of which will help ease their pain or their comfort in their final days.

“The cost of living crisis has just made this situation worse and means even more people have found themselves in this awful position.

"It’s essential we do everything we can to help and by joining with Compton Care, which does such great work across the Black Country, we can ensure this help reaches those who need it as quickly and directly as possible.”

Compton Care can help its patients in a wide variety of ways, from providing funds for clothing if someone has rapidly lost weight to buying new bedding if they now need to use a single bed or even just shopping vouchers to ensure people can do a good food shop.

Karen Evans, business & development manager at Compton Care said: “We are thrilled to be working in partnership again with Wolverhampton Council so that we can help our patients and their families even more during these challenging economic conditions.”

To find out more, go to wolverhampton.gov.uk/cost-of-living-support or call 01902 290241 option 2 or Compton Care on 01902 774537.