LGBT Foundation Remote Services: Coronavirus
LGBT Foundation has temporarily shifted to become a remote service delivery charity due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. This means that all our face-to-face services have been paused until further notice. To find out more about what this means for this service, you can call us on 0345 3 30 30 30 or email [email protected]
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Helpline
Our helpline is now running extended hours through the week and over the weekends to provide emotional support, brief advice, and signposting. Our new opening hours are 9am-9pm Monday to Friday, and 10am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday.
Despite our hours being extended we are aware that you may be experiencing crisis, if you are then please make use of the following information:
Samaritans (24 hours a day) - Phone: 116 123
Saneline (6pm-11pm every day of the year) - Phone: 0300 304 7000
The Gateway Service (9am-7pm) - Phone: 0161 882 2400
Assessments
In response to COVID-19 and government guidance on social distancing, we are delivering all of our services remotely. This means thatall of our initial assessments will be done over the phone or via web platform/mobile app.
We are unable to provide any face-to-face services at the moment and anticipate that this may continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. As a result, from the 1st May 2020, we will only be accepting referrals for remote services. If you are interested in accessing face-to-face support in person, please do not refer yourself in at this time. We will be updating our social media channels and website as soon as we anticipate being able to provide face-to-face services again.
If you have any concerns or accessibility issues regarding web platform/mobile app (e.g. Zoom, WhatsApp) or changes to our services, please call 0345 3 30 30 30 or email [email protected].
We will respond to emails on a case-by-case basis and endeavour to respond as quickly as possible.
Eligibility for Assessments
LGBT Foundation are based in Manchester, UK, and aim to support to people across the country through a range of services including a national helpline. At the moment, some of our services including Talking Therapies (Counselling), Trans Advocacy and Substance Misuse have restricted eligibility, this means that we will not be able to accept referrals if you live outside of Greater Manchester.
If you live outside of Greater Manchester, please contact us on 0345 3303030 or [email protected] and we will be happy to suggest some alternative sources of support.
Domestic Abuse
Our Domestic Abuse program is still providing 1:1 support around domestic abuse. This will no longer be face to face but the case work sessions will take place either through telephone support or online platforms such as zoom. If it is not safe for you use these platforms then the case worker can communicate over email or text. We are still able to provide safety measures to those who are at risk of domestic abuse and these can be posted to your home.
Training can still be booked with the Domestic Abuse Co-ordinator and this can either be done remotely on zoom or scheduled for a later date in the year. Please contact [email protected] if you wish to discuss this further.
Talking Therapies
Talking Therapies will continue to accept referrals for telephone and online therapy. Due to current service changes, we are at present unable to offer therapy to anyone outside of Greater Manchester.
Assessments and one-to-one counselling sessions will be delivered remotely via telephone or web platform/mobile app.
For additional support, there are a number of resources and signposting available on our Wellbeing Hub and social media channels.
If you live outside of Greater Manchester and would like support in finding sources of LGBT affirmative counselling near you, please contact our helpline on 03453303030 or email [email protected]
Substance Misuse
Our Substance Misuse service will continue to accept referrals at the present time. One to one sessions will be delivered remotely, either via phone or online. Our team is also providing information on online mutual aid groups (e.g. AA) and SMART recovery. We are also going to offer harm reduction and outreach awareness campaigns through our social media channels.
Sexual Health
Our sexual health team are currently unable to offer any face-to-face services, including sexual health testing. We will be working remotely, so we can still offer support in the following ways.
If you’d like to arrange a call-back from a member of our sexual health team, please send an email to [email protected] with your name and a phone number we can use to contact you.
If you’d like support via email, email [email protected].
We will be running a range of exciting online workshops focused on reducing isolation, sexual wellbeing and sexual health.
We will be offering free postal condoms and lube.
Other sexual health services are also operating a limited service. During this time, please do not attend clinics in person without being told to do so.
The Northern sexual health (Manchester, Stockport, Tameside, and Trafford) are offering telephone appointments and have created 2 new phone numbers for sexual health emergencies, including PEP, emergency contraception, sexual assault, and for patients aged under 16. They have also suspended online ordering of their home sampling kits”
Virgincare (Oldham, Bury and Rochdale) have suspended all walk-in clinics and the online booking system and are booking appointments and offering phone advice by telephone on 0300 303 8565.
Spectrum (Wigan and Leigh) has temporarily suspended Walk-In Clinics and all appointments will now be taken by telephone on 01942 483 188.
SHINE (Bolton and Salford) Sexual Health Community Clinics have closed and the the online booking system will be unavailable until further notice. Only essential appointments are being provided. For more information, click here.
Pride in Practice
Pride in Practice will continue to work with Primary Care Services and support LGBT patients at this present time.
We are not currently able to visit Primary Care Services in person and our community centre is closed, however we continue to be available via telephone and email. We are also able to provide additional remote training through Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
At this time when people who experience barriers and poor outcomes in healthcare have even less support, our work is more important than ever.
Our email is [email protected]. We are here if you need us.
LGBT Foundation Groups
All groups will now be suspended in our Community Centre until at least 14th April. Please continue to check this page to keep up to date with when our building will reopen. We are currently looking at ways for our groups to run remotely and anticipate these will commence from w/c 30th March. Please note that not all groups will be able to run remotely. Please contact [email protected] if you wish to join one of our remote groups, for further information and instructions for joining.
Befriending
LGBT Foundation's telephone befriending programme aims to reduce social isolation for LGBT people across Greater Manchester who may be experiencing social isolation due to the recent coronavirus outbreak or other circumstances. It may be particularly suitable for those having to self isolate for a longer period of time.
Launching this service is a collaboration between our Pride in Ageing and Our Manchester programmes. Service users will receive a friendly informal phone call from their befriender around once a week and we will aim to match people according to their interests or needs.
This service is not yet running, please keep an eye on this webpage and our social channels for more information.
Community Safety (including Village Angels and Village Haven)
As Village Angels and Village Haven are both street-based services, we are unable to operate these services safely at the moment, and as such are suspended until at least 14th April.
All service users can still access our helpline on 0345 3 30 30 30, Monday to Friday between 10am and 6pm. If you are in the Village and in need of urgent and immediate support, please call the police or other emergency services if appropriate.
For any other queries or concerns about our Community Safety programme during this time please contact [email protected] for further support or signposting.
Trans Programme
The Trans Programme at LGBT Foundation will continue support the trans community in any way that it can during this period. We're still fighting for your rights, you just might have to wait a bit before seeing us again. There will however be some changes to the way that the programme operates however, which will be as follows:
1. TransMCR will not take place in the Community Centre in April, however we will be hosting a handful of activities that you can participate in online, so please do keep an eye on our Facebook page for more information!
2. Whilst trans advocacy appointments will no longer be conducted in person, they will be available over the phone and by email.
3. Any additional groups or meetings have been suspended until further notice. We are currently looking into ways to run these remotely, so keep your ears open for those announcements.
As always, you can contact the trans programme directly by emailing [email protected]. We'll see you all soon!
Women's Programme
The Women’s Programme is still here and still operating – we’re just getting creative in how we do things. So, to make sure we all keep in touch and find ways to make sure we’re all doing okay, we are offering you the following:
1. A weekly online session where we as many of us as possible get together (via an online platform like Zoom) and we share a skill or ways in which we are managing – recipes for a dwindling store cupboard or tips for doing stuff in our gardens now we have time on our hands. We may offer a webinar on some recent research that a colleague or community member wants to share, or we may create a space for Q&As around the current situation on which we may be able to offer advice.
We would love your ideas because these sessions are for you and about you. So, please get involved - reply to this email telling us what would help you or what you’d be interested in logging in to share, we’ll create an invite list (with very clear instructions, don’t worry).and we’ll get cracking!
Keep checking this page for further details on accessing Women's Programme online activity.
