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We need people who can regularly telephone an older person to provide friendship and support
As a telephone befriender, you will help to reduce feelings of social isolation and loneliness in older people. You will be matched to an older person in the UK to make regular friendship calls.
Most of our volunteers call the person they are befriending weekly, but depending on your availability we can match you to more than one person, or to support one of our lighter touch services that require less frequent calls.
We are currently able to offer telephone befriending in all areas of mainland UK. Face-to-face befriending may be available in areas where we have a local MHA service.
One half an hour call seems really simple, but having someone to talk to and someone to listen, could really make a difference to an older person. It could be that you’re the only person they speak to that day, or even that week.
Our befrienders are introduced to an older person, either through a telephone call or a free video calling programme like Skype (this would depend if the older person had access to a home broadband connection).
The calling is flexible, we recommend you try and keep the call to the same time and day every week, but it’s up to you and you can discuss this on your first call.
Help us to support crucial and life enhancing services that eliminate isolation and loneliness, enabling people to live later life well.
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