Initiative shows isolation a major issue for city’s elderly

An initiative designed to help elderly Southlanders struggling with loneliness has put a spotlight on the scope of the problem.

Waikiwi Gardens Rest Home owners Denzil and Kate Travers launched the Social Seniors programme in February, with the aim of giving seniors in the community a chance to socialise every week.

Initially operating two days a week, participants are picked up from their homes and taken to the rest home, where they can take part in group activities, socialise, and enjoy home-cooked meals.

While the Travers’ say the programme has been a big success, it has also shown the problems in the community were much deeper than they expected.

Denzil said while they knew the programme would appeal to people living on their own, they had not anticipated the amount of couples who were also using it. ‘‘What we found was that there’s a lot of scenarios where the husband or the wife cares for their partner 24/7, and they don’t get a break at all.

‘‘With the programme, one person gets to have the benefits of socialisation and a day out, while the carer gets time to do something as simple as going to the hairdresser or a doctor’s appointment.’’

Denzil said the burden of care could be massively stressful for those looking after their spouses. ‘‘To see the stress relief it brings to people is amazing ... we’ve seen people who break down in tears because now they know they can have some sort of a life.’’

Denzil said while the programme had been able to help many people in Invercargill, they were only just ‘‘scratching the surface’’ of the problem.

Kate said many seniors were not as tech-savvy as the rest of the population, and often did not know where to look for help.

‘‘They don’t know where they can go for help, so they simply soldier on and do what they’ve always done.

‘‘If someone’s not in contact with you and you don’t know where to look for help, what can you do?’’

Kate said for those who did know about similar programmes, fear over finances or trying something new could also stop them from reaching out.

‘‘That’s the bit that concerns me ... there must be so many more people out there in these situations.’’

Denzil said it was disappointing there was no funding in place for this or similar programmes.

‘‘We charge $35 for the service, which covers pick-up, drop-off and all of their meals, and even then we’re not really even covering our costs.

‘‘The people who can are happy to pay for it, what we’ve also found is there are a lot of people in the community who don’t have carer support, and $35 is beyond their means.’’

‘‘If you’re on a pension, $35 is a lot of money, and those are some of the people who need it the most.’’ Denzil said as a business they could not source money from grants, while the Southern DHB had no extra funding for the scheme.

He said while there had been good support from the community, it was frustrating that more could not be done to address the problem.

‘‘There’s a lot of talk in the media and politics about loneliness for seniors and our aging population.

‘‘While we hear people say it’s a problem, it seems like nobody actually wants to do the work at the grass roots level.’’