BLOG – A Week In The Life Of A Green Doctor
This month, we caught up with Alan, a Green Doctor here at Groundwork, to see what he gets up to in a typical week!
What is your role?
As a Green Doctor I go into people’s homes, all prearranged – not cold calling, and advise them on energy saving measures and how to make their home more energy efficient. We change light bulbs, we fit door strips and draught excluder foils that go behind radiators and we give advice and help anyone who is in energy debt.
If we find problems, such as damp and mould, we contact the Housing Association on the resident’s behalf, requesting that the maintenance teams look into it further. I’m pleased to say that thanks to our interventions, these issues generally do get repaired.
If we hear about a problem which we can’t help with at the time, we signpost residents to Citizens Advice or a similar partner organisation.
What do you get up to in a typical week?
On a Monday I will be out doing home visits, which is generally 4 home visits during the day that can last up to an hour and a half each.
Tuesday is generally an office day where I recontact people that I’ve visited the previous week who need further support. This may include contacting partners such as LEAP, who provide certain white goods, such as cookers, washes, fridge freezers, to residents who fit the certain criteria.
Wednesdays and Thursdays, I’m back out on the road, and on Friday mornings I do drop offs to people who are happy and able to install small measures without our support.
Tell us about an exciting work day you’ve recently had?
A few months ago, I visited a lady who had problems with damp and mould in her flat. I took some photographs to e-mail to the appropriate Housing Association, but when I heard back from them it turned out she owned a 75% share of the flat, which she had no idea about! Through further investigation we found out that her name wasn’t even on the deeds, so we helped her to get a hold of a solicitors to sort that out.
Every week we encounter someone who needs our help beyond our standard energy support, and we’re always happy to help where we can.
In addition to helping sort out her deeds, we ensured the damp was been removed from her home. We arranged new loft insulation fitted as part of one of our retrofitting programmes. My colleague Abi has recently become an accredited Retrofit Assessor, which means the Energyworks team will be able to help even more people with loft installations and other retrofit measures in the future.
What motivates you to do your work?
The work that we do is so rewarding. Whether it’s changing a bulb for someone or having a chat with an elderly person who doesn’t speak to people very often, everyone is so full of gratitude for the support.
This job is nothing like I’ve ever done before, let’s put it that way! And I mean that in a good way!