Isolated elderly using alarm for someone to talk to

Loneliness is responsible for the great majority of calls by elderly people to a monitored home alarm system, it was disclosed yesterday.

More than 80 per cent of calls to the monitoring centre were from people looking for someone to talk to.

The findings were presented at the launch of Muintir na Tíre's national Community Alert Awareness Week in Limerick Junction, Co Tipperary, yesterday.

Gerry Bunting of Task Community Care, the group that provides Carelink, a monitored home alarm pendant system that elderly people wear and can activate in emergencies, said: "We are finding people are activating it [the pendant] pretending to see if it works but then start chatting to the operators.

"They're just lonely. They will have given us a list of family members' contact details but they're not reachable and they think we can wave a magic wand and get in touch with them."

According to Mr Bunting, Carelink gets between 700 and 800 calls a week.

"The majority of the calls [by elderly people] looking just to talk are at night, sometimes up to 2am in the morning," he said.

Community Alert Awareness Week was launched by Senator Pat Moylan. Lamenting the loss of rural postal deliveries, Mr Moylan said post should be delivered by hand every second day.

Such an arrangement would mean post deliverers could call regularly on those living in isolation, he said.

Muintir na Tíre yesterday urged everyone to carry out an act of neighbourly kindness this week.

Dermot O'Donnell, president of Muintir na Tíre, explained what this might involve: "This could mean doing a domestic chore for some elderly person, checking their windows and doors are secure, or checking their alarm systems are working.

"We feel, in the changing times we live in, it's good to take stock of [ those] with whom we share our community and to give a little back."

Community Alert Awareness Week, which continues until November 3rd, coincides with the publication of Muintir na Tíre's Community Alert Strategy: 2007-2011.

The strategy was launched by Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan in Co Tipperary last Friday.

The Community Alert programme was set up in 1985 when Muintir na Tíre approached the Garda following a series of violent attacks on elderly people living in isolated areas. There are now 1,250 Community Alert groups working with officers in 21 Garda divisions throughout the State.