SeniorLine initiative to maximise community social inclusion for callers and volunteers

Description

In autumn 2022 SeniorLine was receiving an average 2,300 calls per month. Many callers were still emotionally affected by Covid isolation, and fearful about anticipated rising food and energy costs, Callers were reporting mental health difficulties such as anxiety, depression and fearfulness. Our 100+ volunteers were still working from home and needed extra training to deal with increasingly complex calls.
In response SeniorLine developed a new training course ‘Coming Through Covid’. This course
• addressed the problems being received on the line
• offered insights into the components of staying positively healthy – physically, mentally and emotionally
• provided a modules on suicide ideation
• supplied handouts for each participants post-course.
The course also emphasised the our empathetic listening model, giving caller time and discussing their future options. Each volunteer has a Directory of Services signpost calls to other relevant organisations as appropriate.
The handouts covered:
– Eating for Mental Health
– Exercising for Mental Health
– Keeping Warm/Saving Energy
– Positive Mental health in older age
– Support Organisations
All but two of our 100+ volunteers attended the course. Support documents have been helpful to volunteer and caller alike.
In early 2023, SeniorLine began to receive increase in calls reporting coercive control perpetrated by spouses, adult children and carers. In response we developed two new courses – on Coercive Control and Self-Care respectively. We also invited speakers from Women’s Aid and Samaritans as part of volunteer CPD; again we had excellent take up on CPD and courses.
The coercive control course:
• defined this pattern of behaviour as affecting both genders
• gave information on recognising pattern and dynamic of coercive control and responding to such calls
• studied a number of case histories and supplied a list of relevant support organisations

This course broke new ground for many volunteers, and gave them a renewed confidence and understanding in working with callers who were presenting with such problems in their lives.
The third of our new courses arose from the realisation that some of the problems being presented by callers were triggering similar issues in the early lives of some volunteers. We decided this needed to be directly addressed. In Caring for Myself on SeniorLine we:
• Discussed the nature of calls that volunteers found difficult
• Identified and named the core issue of such difficulty in each case
• Looked together at how these calls can best be handled
• Shared helpful responses drawing on the wisdom of the volunteer group
• Provided some practical exercises in self-care and resilience – a self-care tool box
In terms of some of these deeper issues, we also looked at how volunteers can prepare for SeniorLine duty before a call, during and call and how to access necessary support after any call found to be particularly difficult.
On the premise that assertiveness is the basis of all good self-care, we discussed the principles of assertiveness and how they could be applied to self and callers in an appropriate manner on SeniorLine.
The cumulative effect of these three course has been to bring volunteers together for in-person training which has been particularly welcome post-Covid and in countering some of the isolation engendered in working from home.
As well as providing a social function and adding to the collective strength of the SeniorLine service, the courses provided a forum to discuss topics which were relevant, timely, and responded to the changing needs of callers and volunteers.
The courses also provided in-person contact between staff and volunteers and allowed for many informal opportunities for face to face reassurance and support.

Aim of Initiative

To minimise the negative effect of coming out of Covid for our older volunteers and older callers by enabling them to learn how to cope and take part in a positive way again.

Who is it aimed at

Older People – in particular our 120 volunteers and our callers. SeniorLine had 26,000 calls in 2022.

3 Steps critical to success

1. Identifying the areas most important for our volunteers and respopnding to those issues identified by our callers
2. planning a programme of skills development to support 1) our volunteers and 2) our callers
3. delivery of a training and development programme over a 4 month period

3 Challenges in Planning / Delivery

1. funding!
   The courses for this project were designed and delivered by Anne Dempsey of SeniorLine
   We set up training in a hall in Abbey street, we provided teas/coffees/and lunches for all volunteers during training. we also provided a lot of handouts. we were fortunate to eventually get a grant to cover some of the costs
2. Participation. While our older volunteers are fantastic, they also suffer from health issues. However, Anne Dempsey phoned each person individually to encourage participation – and achieved 98% turnout!
3. Delivery: due to lack of funding initially, we found venue to be cold (November to February)

3 Outcomes / Benefits

1. Participation by 98% of our older volunteers in the training courses provided. This is due to hard work and effort of our training and communications manager, Anne Dempsey
2. To ensure our older volunteers were well informed- the feedback from training was most reassuring- volunteers felt they were better informed and had the necessary tools to deal with our Older callers in a more positive way
3. Log sheets (we have a log sheet for every call) feedback tells us that our callers are being treated with respect, they are feeling reassured about their ability to participate in everyday life again.