Who we are

Omega is a small national charity helping to keep people connected and living well in later life, particularly those with life-limiting illness, those who are caring and those who are bereaved. We are a friendly end of life charity working hard to raise standards in end of life care.

We prioritise the most isolated clients over the age of 75 who are struggling without supportive people around them and who can’t get the help they need elsewhere. We offer a mix of support by telephone, letter and face-to-face delivered by more than 350 dedicated volunteers who are supported by a handful of paid staff. Much of our work is based in the West Midlands.

We aim to work collaboratively to tackle social isolation and improve overall wellbeing through award winning programmes that foster feelings of inclusion, connectedness, resilience and self-confidence as well as peer support to access services.

Meet the Team

Our History

Omega was founded in 2007 by a senior end-of-life clinician. We have helped to deliver a number of ground breaking, nationally significant initiatives including the NIACE Community Learning Innovation Fund Family Carer Community Learning Support Project and the Department of Health-funded Caring with Confidence programme which offered facilitated group sessions throughout the country. We have worked with elderly family caregivers since 2009 and began tackling loneliness in later life in 2011. Our clients have always had a key role in helping to shape programme development.

In 2012, following conversations with older caregivers and bereaved former carers including members of Omega Meeting Point Support groups who were struggling to get to sessions owing to frailty, poor health or caring responsibilities, we launched the Chatterbox Action Against Loneliness programme. Chatterbox is an enhanced telephone befriending project building on the self-help and peer support ethos of our facilitated group sessions and other face-to-face activity. Heavily reliant on talented volunteers, Chatterbox has won multiple awards and broadened our reach to keep more vulnerable elderly people connected and living well.

The idea for our pen pal befriending programme came from a PhD student called Louise who saw how her Nan, who was seriously ill, was given a huge boost from a regular letter from a close friend. Louise wanted more people to have the same positive experience. She approached us with the idea in 2017 and we developed A Letter from Louise, a fully safeguarded pen pal programme, as a sister project to Chatterbox.

The work we do has personal meaning for many of us. Most colleagues have had personal or professional experience of the issues faced by our clients. Together with our beneficiaries, supporters and delivery partners we have developed practical responses to help clients who do not have support from their family or a robust social network.

Our community focus, experience developing end-of-life support and tackling loneliness, complementary programmes, strong connections with partners, and our committed and talented colleagues continue to help us to develop programmes and initiatives that respond to the needs of our clients.

Working with Omega

Everyone at Omega cares passionately about what we do, which makes work a special place to be.

Our paid job vacancies are listed below.

If you would like to talk to us, please telephone 01742 245088 or email info@omega.uk.net.

For our volunteering opportunities, head over to our volunteer page.