Rest-home visitor scheme planned

Press, 7 September 1989, Page 5

Rest-home visitor scheme planned

By

SUZANNE KEEN

An accredited visitor scheme aimed at providing lonely resthome residents with some company may begin in Christchurch by the end of this year. The scheme’s Canterbury co-ordi-nator, Mrs Gill Mendonca, will attend a national training session in Wellington next month and hopes that the training of volunteers will begin soon after her return to Christchurch. The accredited visitor scheme

was started by the Minister of Social Welfare, Dr Cullen, after a study of Auckland rest homes which showed that 40 per cent of male residents and 30 per cent of female residents had no visitors. “It is hard to tell how many visitors people have,” Mrs Mendonca said. “It is possibly not quite as bad in Christchurch because it is more accessible than Auckland and we have a very caring community here.” She will try to find out where

there is the greatest need for regular visitors as the scheme will begin initially in only a few rest homes. Mrs Mendonca said the volunteers would receive training, working with the Health Department Unit and the Christchurch Polytechnic. “The volunteers we use will have to be genuinely caring and interested in the elderly. They really need to be special people.”