The Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health is looking for volunteers for their Lonely No More program for seniors.
Research Project Coordinator Megan Fluit said they're looking for volunteers who would host weekly conference calls with eight to 10 seniors who are not able to travel to something like a community centre for discussions.
Fluit said particularly for seniors who don't have access to transportation, isolation is a problem, and the once-a-week conference calls gives them a chance to communicate with other seniors and share experiences on how to deal with challenges they face.
They are conducting two training sessions for volunteers. The first is in St. Marys this Friday and the second one is on October 11 in Goderich. Each training session runs from 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and lunch is included.
Fluit added that anyone who might be interested in the program is welcome to come to the training session and then decide if they want to volunteer.
“We're going to have pairs of two volunteers and eight to ten older adults on the calls, so the volunteer training, you'll learn health-coaching techniques, how to identify risk factors for elder abuse, how to engage community members," said Fluit.
She said the time commitment for each volunteer would be about two hours a week but it's hard to be exact because it's a pilot project.
More information on the project can be found on the Lonely No More link on the Gateway website.
