Roscommon Friendly Call Service
LAUNCHED in October 2008, the Roscommon Friendly Call Service has gone from strength to strength over the past number of years, in providing an innovative and unique service to the county’s older community.The Friendly Call Service provides a weekly phone call to clients and provides social contact for at times, a forgotten generation. The idea of the service is extremely simple, making a phone call to each client once or twice a week to ensure their well-being and also to remind them of hospital and doctors appointments if needed etc. The volunteers who operate the service are senior citizens, who have plenty in common with the clients and understand issues concerning older people living in County Roscommon.
The Friendly Call Service works towards improving and protecting the social living standards, and very importantly in reducing the feeling of isolation often experienced by people living in rural areas. The service is fully supported by public health nurses around the county who engage with older people, and they encourage people to avail of the service.
Roscommon Friendly Call Service provides a free telephone support service to the clients, to check on their well-being. This involves telephoning the client twice a week which often involves just a quick chat. There are currently 8 volunteers and one part time worker who have had training in communication skills and computers to name a few. This is a free and innovative service which is being currently used by over 160 clients.
The friendly call service also acts as an emergency action service. In the event of there being no response to the call by the client, the friendly call service volunteer will contact a next of kin to check on the clients well-being before contacting emergency services if it is deemed necessary.
Follow the link below, to see a recent interview with Irish TV highlighting the service offered by Roscommon Friendly Call, http://www.irishtv.ie/roscommon-matters-43/