A pilot program of the Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health has been so successful they're looking for more participants.
The program is called Lonely No More. Trained volunteers set up a conference call once a week with four of five seniors who were who were dealing with varying degrees of isolation.
Coordinator Skyler Gopie said the goal was to reduce the level of social isolation, and they found when they were able to do that they also resolved other health issues, like hospital admissions.
Gopie said the feedback from the volunteers and from the seniors in the first five weeks was very encouraging.
"After the five weeks we talked to both the volunteers who were running the calls as well as the participants and especially from the participants, they were saying we feel like we're just starting to get to know each other, we're starting to build some new relationships, we'd love to keep them going, so we just kept the circles running," said Gopie.
Gopie said now they want to expand the program and their biggest challenge is finding seniors who are socially isolated and could benefit from the Lonely No More program.
Anyone interested in talking with other seniors once a week can google Lonely No More – Gateway for contact information.
