Telephone befriending service helps elderly in Merseyside tackle loneliness at Christmas

CHRISTMAS can be a particularly difficult time for people who live on their own, especially the elderly. A free Merseyside telephone befriending service for the over 55s, called Silver Talk, set up by Warrington based, Your Housing Group, one of the UK‘s largest housing associations, is helping combat this with a team of volunteers.

The 1st of its kind in the North West, Silver Talk was set up in April for Your Housing Group‘s elderly tenants who may feel isolated and want to make new friends. Run by 8 trained volunteers, all Your Housing Group residents, they call every Thursday and offer help, support and a listening ear.

Based at Raglan Court in St Helens, 1 of Your Housing Group‘s sheltered housing schemes, the team make up to 20 calls a week and make notes of things that have been talked about such as birthdays, hospital visits, holidays and family visits which can be used as an ice breaker and a way of opening the conversation when they next call.

Your Housing Group‘s Community Projects Manager, Janine Greenall said:- "People can feel lonely anytime of the year but it can be more profound during the festive period. To get a call from a familiar voice every week can make such a difference to someone‘s life. Some people just fancy a natter and others need specific advice. The Silver Talk team spend half an hour on each call so there‘s plenty of time to share problems or concerns. Although this was set up for our tenants it‘s not exclusively so."

One of the volunteers and Your Housing Group tenant Margaret Baxter, said:- "We have to be good listeners and be able to put the people we‘re talking to at ease. They sometimes tell us things they‘re not comfortable talking to their family about. We become friends they never meet and form a bond. It‘s lovely to feel you‘re helping people and making a difference to their lives."

Call:- 07795 052271 to find out more about Your Housing Group‘s Silver Talk scheme.

The Merseyside scheme has been so successful that it is opening another call centre for Your Housing Group tenants living in Cheshire. Cheshire Silver Talk will be based at St Paul‘s Court in Warrington, another Your Housing Group sheltered scheme, and start operating from February.

Police officers in Seaforth donned overalls and pickup brushes

POLICE Officers in Seaforth have donned overalls and grabbed a paintbrush to spruce up a kids club hall as part of a community clean up on Friday. They were joined by Council employees, housing association staff, and other emergency services in giving the area a much needed kickstart on behalf of residents. The activity was backed up by enforcement action by Sefton‘s neighbourhood support team whose officers executed three Misuse of Drugs Act warrants.   2 people were arrested; a 51 year old man and a 40 year old woman and quantities of suspected amphetamines were discovered. An off road motorbike was also seized from a back garden after officers suspected it was stolen. Seaforth neighbourhood sergeant Kate Young said:- "This has been all about the giving the area a much needed boost on behalf of the people living here. The hope is that by getting together to tackle the various issues the area has been suffering, we can make a visible difference and the community will then be inspired to take it on. Members of the public have raised concerns with the police, the Council and some of the housing providers about anti social behaviour, drug misuse, dog fouling, graffiti and other low level issues. All of which have dragged the area down and affected people‘s quality of life. We hope that by everyone mucking in we have made a real in road into the problem and the challenge now is for the community to take up the baton."

During the day, Chief Inspector Simon Thompson led a team of police community support officers in giving a fresh lick of paint to Caradoc kids club, while neighbourhood officers on quad bikes patrolled Rimrose Valley Country Park to send out the message that the park was there for all to use and anti social use of motorbikes would not be tolerated.  Elsewhere, street cleaning teams from the Council filled skips with things removed from fly tipping hotspots, a giant electrical 'pooper scooper' was used to deal with dog fouling, and housing association staff made personal visits to residents to gauge their views on the main issues they wanted addressing, and PCSOs dished out hot drinks to anyone who popped into the mobile police station to speak to them. Ch Insp Thompson said the painting operation had been well worth donning the overalls for. He said:- "The walls of the hall could not have seemed bigger, but thanks to teamwork and some nice big rollers and paint brushes we gave it a much needed fresh lick of paint. Community centres are a really important facility that people of all ages use and get lots of benefits from. By helping to maintain it, as well as chip in with all the other work and activity done today, we hope it will give the area abit of a boost before Christmas."

Sgt Young added:- "It has been a brilliant response and shows what can be done when everyone in the community works together. It‘s in everyone‘s interests to improve the area and maintain people‘s quality of life as if you let the little issues develop, they become something more problematical. Only a small minority of people in the community are involved in criminality and it is their actions that affect everyone else. The arrests should send a clear message to such people that the police and our partners will not tolerate drug dealing and the associated violence that comes with it."