Befriending volunteers stay in touch with temporary telephone service
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A popular local befriending service is adapting to the demands of social distancing by chatting over the phone rather than in person.
Befriending Caithness, delivered by Caithness Voluntary Group, seeks to reduce isolation and loneliness by matching volunteers to older isolated adults.
Seven new volunteers have come forward to help deliver the organisation's temporary telephone befriending service in the four weeks since it started.
“While telephone befriending clearly lacks the personal touch of our normal face-to-face service, it will nevertheless make an important contribution to wellbeing – especially for those clients in remote and very rural areas,” befriending co-ordinator Angie House said.
“Many more of our elderly population have had to self-isolate due to Covid-19, leading to people becoming increasingly isolated and lonely.
“We started promoting our new temporary telephone befriending service four weeks ago and already have had 14 referrals and seven new volunteers.
“We have taken advice from the charity Befriending Networks on how to implement this new way of befriending. We have policies and guidelines in place and there is a training video produced by Befriending Networks.
“With some befriendees the volunteers are contacting them by Skype and letter as well as phone.”
Angie added: “During this crisis it is extremely important that we keep talking to each other. One of our befriendees said that he is delighted with the phone call and it gives him a structure to his day.
“If anyone would like to volunteer, please contact angie@cvg.org.uk – or indeed get in touch if you are over 60, feeling isolated and would like to have a friendly voice on the phone.”
