Peer Support Service

Recognising that deciding if home dialysis is for you can be an anxious time, the NKF launched their national peer support service on 1 September 2021. The free to call NKF Helpline is the main contact for patients and carers to contact if they would like someone to talk to regarding the option of considering dialysis at home. The peer support service has seen a successful start and fully trained peer supporters have already helped many patients and carers receiving support. The helpline has received excellent feedback from both those who have received support and from the peer support volunteers who have been able to give good advice to help patients from their own experiences and knowledge of home dialysis. There has been significant promotion of the service with many requests from nurses and hospitals for peer support flyers and posters and these have been sent out in bulk to areas across the UK, all of which should aid the growth of this service. The peer support volunteers have been very helpful to patients and have shown excellent communication to the helpline with regular updates. Our peer supporters have also helped with promotion by providing photos and quotes about their home dialysis experience which have been used on the NKF social media channels, in the monthly NKF newsletter, In Touch and the quarterly magazine, Kidney Life. As well as connecting patients with a peer supporter, the helpline has also provided peer support training to people who have wanted to join the team, we now have a variety of people who can advise on home HD, PD and caring for someone on home dialysis. These are a selection of the NKF peer supporters

Jenni Barnes Dana Holmes Kasonde Konie

Chris Rolfe Caroline Storey Jeff Wood

New NKF Helpline Leaflet A new leaflet ‘A Covid-19 Perspective on Home Dialysis’ was launched on 29 October 2021 with information in it about the advantages and disadvantages of home dialysis whilst Covid-19 is still a major concern in the UK for kidney patients. A promotion of the new leaflet was sent to all renal units, senior nurses and KPAs at the end of October. This leaflet has already proved very popular with renal units, and 1,500 of these leaflets so far have been sent out to various renal hospitals around the country. The new leaflet is available in both leaflet and PDF format and the text is on the NKF website here: https://www.kidney.org.uk/a-covid-19perspective-on-home-dialysis