‘Phone buddy’ Máiréad a lifeline for lone elderly
Asdee woman warns of lockdown impact on senior citizens
FEW, if anyone, can have as strong a grasp on the degree to which loneliness has taken hold among the isolated elderly of the county than Máiréad Hanlon.
The Asdee native – who is the HSE Activities Co- Ordinator for Older People in North Kerry working with the Ard Chúram Day Care Centre and a plethora of active retirement groups – is this week warning of the impact of the lock-down on the senior-most citizens of our county.
And you can take it from her. Since normal operations ceased, Mairead established a special ‘phone buddy’ service that sees her phoning up to 225 people per week; talking with them for as long as they require about everything and anything just to provide human contact.
Because that is what hundreds of isolated elderly are now starved of. And it is rapidly eating away at their quality of life and health.
“My work would have involved visiting a number of active retired groups in North Kerry, and I also work with the Alzheimer’s Group in Listowel in the Family Resource Centre on Thursdays, so that’s all changed now. My role during this pandemic now is that I’m working from home, but I’ve actually become a phone buddy for anyone who wants to talk and hear a voice at the end of the phone, as it has been a very frightening and challenging time for so many,” she told The Kerryman.
“The vast majority of the people I ring are living alone and they find the loneliness is huge. They are finding it very hard. We’ve had Bank Holiday weekends, Easter, and for many of them they haven’t seen their families or grandchildren at all in that time and they are finding that quite difficult. The human contact is vital, more so now than ever,” Máiréad explained.
Six days a week she sits down with her address book and makes her way through it, contact by contact: “I’m a phone contact for all of these people so in the round of the week, from Monday to Saturday, I make 225 calls from the list of names here who I call each day.”
It might seem like a daunting task to most, but for people-person Máiréad it is vastly rewarding connecting with them all: “It’s actually a lovely experience because I am getting to know people at a whole different level. I knew them from going to the active retirement groups, but when you are going to the groups you are there for a specific purpose, to give them activities to keep them fit and healthy. But I’m getting to know the personalities and the individual natures of these people now, hearing their life stories, and they just love to talk. It’s an act of reminiscing for them a lot of the time.
“They are recalling from their own childhood things, and they never recalled or experienced anything as challenging as the pandemic we’re living through right now. That’s one of the things that comes up often.
“What I’m hearing from people is what they are missing. And they are missing their friends, meeting up with them through a variety of activities from active retirement to so much more. Their routine is gone. As part of their routine many of them would have gone to Mass in the mornings, so they are missing that a lot, and the meeting up with friends after Mass, maybe going for a coffee with them and what not.
“They are missing their bingo, missing the choir for many and missing their Mass.
“They are, of course, missing their families and grand-kids more than anything.”
The news is the same from every house she calls in the massive sweep of territory under her care – extending from Asdee to Ballybunion, Ballylongford, Causeway, Ballyduff, Listowel, Moyvane, Lixnaw and beyond.
Gone is her regular work with Alzheimer’s patients at the Family Resource Centre too: “It’s a hugely challenging time for families of people with Alzheimer’s, they don’t get that break they badly need, especially at a time like this but there’s great work being done by the Alzheimer’s nurses, like Farranfore native Gobnait O’Mahony who works at the Listowel Family Resource Centre.”
Máiréad now volunteers to deliver meals from the Ard Churam at the weekends in her home of Asdee. But not only that, with husband Tony she’s cooking up to six chickens and delivering them to the most isolated elderly in Asdee too.
“My husband Tony and I cook six chickens and deliver them around Asdee to the people here, people who are not part of any group. We just wanted to reach out to them and provide them a hot meal and we get an absolutely fantastic reaction. While the food is very important of course, it’s the act of calling to their door that’s even more important to them. Everything is done safely, of course, with gloves, hand sanitisers and social distancing but it’s the contact. For them to actually meet someone is priceless.
“They are the most vulnerable in society, they are all lovely people and so appreciative and are simply delighted with the link. They look forward to someone is calling to them and they could bring the chair to the door and sit there and just have a conversation as we stand at their gate or hedge and have a bit of a laugh”.
Máiréad urges anyone who might not already be in contact with her to give her a ring if they feel the need for a chat or help of any kind on (086) 869 6341.