Seniors’ social support scheme set to grow

ELDER Rights Advocacy, or ERA, is set to expand aged care services through its Community Visitors scheme, which will be renamed Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme on 1 July.

The expansion comes after recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and is being funded by the Department of Health and Ageing.

Elder Rights Advocacy CEO Debra Nicholl said anyone over the age of 18 is welcome to volunteer.

“This scheme is about a friendly visitor, someone who you can open up to, have a chat to, take you out into the community, shares common interests etcetera,” she said.

“There are a lot of isolated older people living in the community, but also living in residential aged care who benefit from a visitor.

“When a person has a friend, has someone visiting them more regularly, they are less likely to suffer from elder abuse. We know that social isolation increases the risk of abuse.

Ms Nicholl said staff in residential aged care don’t often have the time for regular chats with residents and can leave them feeling lonely and isolated.

“They’re not sharing their stories with the staff so much because the staff are providing care to them on a daily basis,” she said.

Older people having someone to connect with regularly can also prevent elder abuse.

“That’s around someone’s visiting, someone has oversight, someone is in that older person’s life that they can share information with,” Ms Nicholl said.

“They can ask questions of and get the kind of support that they need to say ‘no’ when it comes to financial abuse.

“And I’m not that vulnerable that I can be taken advantage of in the same way because I am connected.”

ERA volunteer coordinator Megan Collisson said over the past 12 months the group has provided support through the program to 44 people in residential aged care or in their homes in the Loddon Mallee region and 166 across regional Victoria.

Ms Collisson said the group hopes the expanded scheme will now be able to connect 90 older people and volunteers in the Loddon Mallee and 785 across the state.

Elder Rights Advocacy was established more then 30 years ago with the aim of providing seniors with free and independent advice removed from governments or aged care providers.