Senior Helpline will be one of our best exports to US, says McAleese

THE SENIOR Helpline will be one of Ireland’s best exports to the US, President Mary McAleese said yesterday as it was announced that an American version of the confidential helpline will open in New York next year.

The President received a warm welcome from Irish emigrants in New York when she addressed them from Galway yesterday via a video link-up. “We’re just delighted that the Senior Helpline brand of caring is being exported to the US,” she said. “I think it’s going to be one of our very best exports.”

The Aisling Centre and the Emerald Isle Emigrant Centre will train older volunteers to take calls from Irish emigrants who are lonely or want to talk to someone. In December, a group of Senior Helpline volunteers will travel from Ireland to New York to assist with training. The US connection came about after Senior Helpline founder Mary Nally visited the Aisling Centre in Yonkers.

One of the prospective volunteers, Cork-born Eileen Moran, addressed the Galway gathering from New York. “There are eight million people in New York. We think that nobody would be lonely but they are,” she said. She said she attended the Aisling Centre twice a week for tea and a chat. “It’s great, but we are aware there are so many people who can’t make it. They are homebound. So the idea of a helpline would be tremendous.”

Mrs McAleese also launched the new Galway Senior Helpline yesterday.

Some 300 trained volunteers now work in 13 Senior Helpline centres around the State, taking about 800 calls a month on the 1850 440 444 line.

The President said the service was there to show that “even if you’re feeling very lost and very alone, that actually there are people who do dare to care about you”. It was a place to tell “the deepest things in your heart or just talk about anything at all”.

She also credited the Senior Helpline with raising awareness of elder abuse. “It never came on the table until this organisation put it on the table,” she said.

“That came from the experience of people living their lives in quiet isolation and dreadful dependency who were living under the shadow of violence in their own homes.”

She spoke about the power of older people and, in a reference to last week’s medical card protests, she said: “Anybody who would ever underestimate the power of our senior citizens, well they got an object lesson in that. You know, it’s been a remarkable week for senior citizens, when you think about it.” The week was “powerful evidence” that people working together could achieve more.

Earlier, the Senior Helpline conference heard that volunteering could help people to live longer. Prof Eamon O’Shea, director of the Centre for Social Gerontology at NUI Galway, said research had found that volunteering improved health and overall satisfaction with life. “It’s probably going to extend your life and during your life it’s going to make you feel happier.”

Prof O’Shea said public bodies should realise that giving time to people was even more important than providing services. “Time is critical, particularly in relation to sustaining quality of life for older people, not just living at home but in long-stay care and so on,” he said. “I think it’s the most valuable resource in terms of ensuring good quality of life.”