The work of Vibrant Health Advocates – Veritas is practical, repeated and relationship-based. It happens in community halls on weekday mornings when a group of twelve older residents runs through balance exercises with a qualified instructor who knows each of their names and their health histories. It happens in a church meeting room on a Thursday afternoon when a workshop participant finally understands what her cholesterol results mean and leaves feeling less afraid and more in control.
It happens when one of our volunteer advocates sits next to an 81-year-old man in a hospital waiting room in Dundee and makes sure his questions get answered before he leaves. None of this is spectacular in isolation, but cumulatively — session by session, conversation by conversation, year after year — it changes how older people in Forfar experience their own health and their own town.
We measure our impact carefully and honestly. We track participation, gather wellbeing outcomes through validated self-reported surveys, and review our advocacy cases for the changes they produced. But we also know that the most important effects of our work do not always show up in a spreadsheet.
Weekly group exercise sessions designed specifically for adults aged 60 and over, held at accessible venues in the town centre.
Move Well Forfar runs three times weekly, offering both seated and standing options so that participants with varying mobility levels, joint conditions or post-operative recovery needs can take part safely. Sessions are led by qualified instructors experienced in working with older adults and incorporate balance training, gentle resistance work, flexibility exercises and brief relaxation.
We keep group sizes small — no more than twelve participants — so that every person receives individual attention and the social atmosphere remains genuinely warm rather than impersonal. Many participants tell us that Move Well is the social highlight of their week, not just the physical one.
Monthly education workshops covering topics that matter most to older residents: medication management, fall prevention, nutrition, mental health and navigating NHS services.
Each Health Matters session is built around a specific topic chosen through feedback from our participants and in consultation with local health professionals. Recent sessions have covered understanding blood pressure readings, getting the most from a GP appointment, eating well on a pension and recognising the early signs of social isolation in a friend or neighbour.
We use plain English throughout, avoid clinical jargon, and always leave time for questions. Sessions are free to attend, held in the afternoon to suit our participants' routines, and available in both in-person and telephone-dial-in format for those with transport difficulties.
One-to-one support for older Forfar residents who need help understanding their health situation, navigating services or communicating effectively with healthcare professionals.
Our trained volunteer advocates provide practical, personal support to individuals facing specific health or care challenges. This might mean accompanying someone to a hospital outpatient appointment in Dundee, helping a resident draft a letter to their GP practice about a concern that has gone unaddressed, or sitting with someone to work through a new diagnosis and what it means for their daily life.
Advocacy is confidential, non-clinical and entirely led by the individual's own wishes and goals. We take referrals from GP practices, social workers and community nurses, as well as direct self-referrals from individuals and family members.
A befriending and social connection programme linking isolated older residents to regular contact, community events and peer support networks across Forfar and nearby villages.
Loneliness among older adults is a health issue as serious as many physical conditions, and in the villages and rural edges of the Angus area it can be acute. Connected Angus pairs isolated individuals with trained volunteer befrienders for regular weekly contact — sometimes a phone call, sometimes a walk through the town, sometimes simply sitting together over a cup of tea.
The programme also organises monthly social gatherings in Forfar town centre, an annual community health fair and seasonal events timed to break the particular isolation that can worsen over the winter months. We currently support participants in Forfar, Kirriemuir, Glamis and the surrounding rural area.
The woman who came to her first Move Well session barely speaking and is now the one who telephones absent members to check they are alright. The man who told his GP what he needed instead of nodding and leaving. The couple who feel, for the first time in years, that someone in this town is paying attention to what older people actually need. That is the work. That is why Veritas exists.
Get in touch to refer an older resident, volunteer with one of our programmes, or find out how your organisation might partner with us.
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