A simple and effective way of combating the growing problem of isolation and loneliness among the elderly is being launched in Scotland. The charity Community Network is offering welfare groups and organisations working with the elderly the opportunity to run their own telephone social groups – free of charge.
Community Network will provide the telephone conferencing expertise to enable up to eight people to participate in this form of group conversation. The charity also offers free training in how to conduct a telephone social group to one person from each group, ensuring the calls are varied, interesting and enjoyable. A group can have up to twenty-six calls over a twelve-month period, with each call lasting thirty minutes or an hour in duration.
Similar schemes have proved successful in other parts of the UK, including a telephone book club in Birmingham, a church group in Essex and the linking up of retired seafarers in Hull.
A telephone social group is simple to set up and easy to operate. Participants receive a call at a pre-arranged time which automatically connects them to the other members in their group. And the time spent talking during the telephone social groups doesn’t cost group members a penny.
The Persula Foundation, set up in 1994 to provide support for original charitable projects, is funding the scheme.
“Recent reports have identified depression as the most common form of illness among the elderly, with one in seven being affected,” said Pat Fitzsimons, Community Network’s chief executive. “Feelings of isolation and loneliness are major factors in causing depression. Telephone social groups bring people together who find it difficult to leave their homes; enabling them to share experiences and interests and, most importantly, make new friends.”
For further information contact Community Network on 020 7923 5250 or enquiries@community-network.org
